Loose Ends from the West Wing
As told by Charlie Nash
In President Bartlet’s office, he and Ms. Lemon were sitting on a table, drinking a cup of tea, with the damages made to his temple having already been repaired by two members of the Master Builders, the Pantheon’s equivalent to construction workers. Ms. Lemon in particular was surprised as to how quickly these people had rebuilt the president’s temple while we were away fighting the Ouroboros.
“Those builders repaired everything fast.” She stopped drinking for a moment to express her shock. “I thought they would repair everything in a few weeks, but Emmet and Steve did it in a few hours.” The president followed suit, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“We will send Cosmos our gratitude in due time, Ms. Lemon.” He assured her as he stood up and looked through the window, deep in thought.
“What are you thinking about this time, Mr. President? Our next council meeting next month?” Even though he remained still, President Bartlet was concerned.
“I have plenty of time to prepare for that, Ms. Lemon.” He lowered his head, as if to contemplate on something. “But I wonder about something: I know I slowly formed this command group for months in response to the attack by the machine criminals, but I’m starting to wonder if I really am effective at this?” Seeing this sort of doubt surprised Ms. Lemon.
“I mean, you’re not doing bad, but you could’ve been more open with the Major’s teammates, sir.” Turning around to face her, the president briefly smiled in relief for a moment before a frown came on his face.
“I wanted the formation to be as subtle and organic as possible.” He turned back around to face the window. “True, Major Guile and his group had to deal with the sadistic cryomancer general Esdeath, that was something I couldn’t foresee. Then there was the homunculus attack. I knew the Ouroboros would attempt to strike once they discovered us, but this was far more sudden than I’d anticipated. Major Guile and Inspector Chun-Li swore to me to keep our connections a secret from their respective groups for that reason.” A sigh of resignation came out of the President’s breath as he continued on. “My choices would’ve gotten us killed.” His frown suddenly changed into a faint smile of relief. “But I will try to be more open with our allies in our future endeavors.”
Though Ms. Lemon was relieved, she still had a thought on her mind. “Why didn’t you just summon all the groups to your office?”
“It’s best not to reveal all your cards at once.” He explained.
“But we would be better protected if you’d just done so.” She protested.
“You’ll understand once the Major and the Captain return to the office with the Inspector and the Delta Red agent.” Remaining steadfast in your stance even in the face of adversity. That’s my President. Their conversation, however, was suddenly interrupted by a phone call. The President picks it up to answer. “Yes? President Bartlet speaking?”
“Mr. President, this is Sears.” The voice revealed itself. “The Millennium’s temple has been heavily damaged by our explosives. I’ve just seen Nash and his pals enter the Ouroboros leader’s temple.”
Hearing the news, Bartlet was relieved. “Do not join their offensive. I want you and your group to cover more ground instead: Do you know of a man named Giovanni?”
Sears, however, seemed curious. “The Leader of Team Rocket? Yeah, I’ve heard of him. What about it?” Remembering the Rainbow Rocket incident, the President gave his next order.
“In their attack, Team Rainbow Rocket has captured a few dozen people, turning them into golden statues. It’s been revealed in the news that they’re in King Bradley’s barracks. Send your group there and see if they’re still inside. If Captain Nash and Major Guile are in the Ouroboros leader’s temple as we speak, then the barracks has already been destroyed. Have your group search for Giovanni or anyone connected to him and be on the lookout for any of those golden statues. They’re the clue. Make sure to not damage the ‘trophies’.”
“I’ll try my best to reign in Giovanni and his accomplices. If I encounter that evil fairy they worked with in the process, I’ll have my men unload everything they have on her.” A little too extreme, but considering the Mistress of All Evil was one of his co-conspirators in the attack, I can’t fault him for his decision.
“Great to know. Bartlet, out.” The President hung up the phone, sat back down on his chair. “Thinking about the current events too much is making me tired.” He sipped down the last drop of tea before leaning back again.
“Maybe you should go to bed, Mr. President. She suggested, worried about his psyche.
“Perhaps I should. Maybe it’ll clear my mind.” Mentally exhausted, the President stood up and went to his bed to sleep. As began climbing into his bed, however, a thought went into his mind. Normally, a military leader would have taken a crime lord to his court and sentenced him to prison for the rest of their lives, but the respective leaders of Team Rocket and High Command have their share of secrets. If Bradley, his ‘father,’ his group, and Giovanni are among Melkor and his ilk… As he rested his head on a pillow, a pressing thought began to disturb him. There must be someone else promising Bradley and Giovanni more power and resources. A benefactor on their side? I would’ve placed Melkor as the first suspect, but then he’s too petty, untrustworthy, and powerful to work with these people. If it’s not him, then who would have the means to bring these two together? Captain, Major, please return to the office once your fight with the Ouroboros is over. I promise you. Mr. President. Me and Guile will return from our fight in one piece.
Mad Assembly
As told by Edward Elric
The battle between Hohenheim and Homunculus was fierce. The former found himself struggling against the Homunculus leader, the latter now in his blob-like form before the Great Philosopher’s Stone transformed him, but this time, the former stood his ground better than he did the first time when me, Al, Teach, the Colonel were dragged into his lair. Thank goodness that that isn’t the case this time. My old man transmuted a wall to protect himself from his old enemy’s alchemy, using constructs in an underwhelming attempt to attack him, the attempt failed as the leader used his alchemy to repel them all. Continuing on with his offensive, Hohenheim used spikes, only for those too to fail.
“I’m impressed you’re still standing, my old friend.” The homunculus leader mused as he began to retaliate with small spikes moving toward his opponent at a fast speed, coupled by the red sparks that began destroying the wall he created.
“I’ve learned from the last time we fought each other back at Amestris.” My old man retorted as he moved out of the way of the spikes while the wall was destroyed, then, transmuting another wall wider than the previous one. The blob bastard smirked.
“You may have learned from our fight, but you haven’t figured out the blueprints quickly enough. My transmutation circle will succeed this time, and I will attain the souls I need for immortality!” Still the same rant crap from Central. They really are siblings in a way, him and Dante. I guess the latter might as well become a homunculus herself. Heh, that’s what I would’ve said to Dante until Teach interrupted me. Nevertheless, he tried to attack again with fist contructs from the ground, only for my old man to deliver a counter-attack that consisted of the same thing, both of which canceled each other out. Before they could make another move, a black portal suddenly appeared; from it came Greed, still subdued by the shadow clones, who strapped him to the chains of the rest of homunculi. Seeing made Envy crack an arrogant smile.
“Hey, Greed. Nice to have you join us.” Seeing through Envy’s sarcastic greetings, Greed only shot a glare of murderous intent toward his siblings, loathing the fact they had planned this sudden ambush.
Bradley, however, ignored Envy’s banter and stared blankly at Greed. “You fell perfectly into our trap as I had laid out.”
Frustrated, the Rebel homunculus sighed. “What are you guys gonna do? Give me some demerits for betraying you again?” Envy and Lust chuckled as they watched Hohenheim and Homunculus continue on. As Lust began to explain everything, their father was caught off-guard by wind from the entrance that threw him off-balance, followed by laser beams, and then flames. directed at him. They hit, with Greed laughing in the process.
“That’s a nice hand-me-down.” While the other homunculi were annoyed, Hohenheim looked at the entrance, noticing the Iron Avengers and the Colonels arrived first, followed by everyone else who left me, Al, and Teach behind to fight Dante. Hoheheim smiled and sighed in relief as help finally arrived. Colonel Mustang rushed to Hohenheim.
“It’s a pleasure to work with you again. Colonel Mustang.” He greeted my commanding officer before looking around to realize the absence of me and Alphonse. “Where are my sons?”
“They opted to stay behind outside the lair alongside their teacher, fighting Dante as we speak.” The two of them looked at the Homunculus leader, who blocked almost everyone’s attacks with a forcefield. “They promised to catch up to you and the rest of us.” Hohenheim instead smiled confidently.
I have faith you will keep her at bay for a fruitful time, my sons. Boy, are you late. Dante’s gone, and the three of us are on our way to you right now, you jerk. Nevertheless, the rest of the group cornered Homunculus, who simply laughed at them.
“Some things never change. However…” He briefly shot a glare at Bradley before returning his focus to everyone. “I should thank Wrath for making new partners around this dimension.” Another black portal suddenly appeared in the throne room, one in between the group and Homunculus, and the other next to Vegeta. From that portal came Dante, Azula, Raditz, and one of Esdeath’s male Jaegers, Run. Hohenheim recognized Dante, realizing she had been bailed out from her fight against the three of us. I know Grandmaster Hasashi sent Esdeath herself to hell, Major Briggs informed us on that, but there are several other people missing; that traitor marksman Vash and his group fought isn’t present, alongside that Gill crook Alphonse, Teach, and their group fought. Those female monsters who fought us with Esdeath aren’t around either. I guess their powers all packed in this lair would’ve been too destructive for the Great Philosopher’s Stone to work effectively so they decided to bring Raditz instead to make up the difference? Of particular note was Azula, who seemed to be still reeling from her fight with Beifong and the Ferret Brothers, something they and Chun-Li have noticed. It’s odd
“Now remember, everything must remain in place to complete the ritual. Do not damage my lair, Saiyan!” Homunculus reminded Raditz.
“Of course…” Raditz smirked as the latter went on his offensive. This isn’t good. Stark and Rhodes quickly intervened, defending everyone else from the Saiyan warrior, with Stark holding Raditz in a grapple-hold, and Rhodes firing at Raditz. Even though the lasers did some damage to their opponent, the latter kept going as strength broke the arm parts of Tony’s armor. The two of them were joined by Colonel Curtiss creating a dark sphere of energy surrounding Raditz. The mage officer observed to realize the result wasn’t as he expected.
It barely slowed him down. The mage officer looked on in shock as the sphere didn’t do much to give Stark and Rhodes a chance to fight back. Thinking in the heat of the moment, Parker quickly jumped around Raditz and his opponents in a position and angle where he could face the Saiyan. Once he got a clear view, the web-slinger and fired a ball of web on his mouth and eyes, distracting him and enabling the Iron Avengers to mount a safe offensive against Raditz, followed by Colonel Curtiss firing a blast of electric energy at Raditz, knocking him back to the group, with the ‘low-class’ Saiyan warrior grinding the floor with his feet. Dante and Azula scowled at combined effort as Raditz took the fluid of the web off his mouth and eyes.
“It’ll take more than cheap tricks and fancy toys for you weak earthlings to overpower me.” A cocky smirk appeared on Raditz’s face, ready to resume his assault. Just as he began doing so, Run began to summon wings behind his back and fly in addition to Dante using her alchemy to summon three lions made of the material Homunculus’s lair was made of. Azula, still hurt from her last fight with Beifong and the Ferret Brothers, engaged them again, this time with Chun-Li, now in a Power Ranger uniform, assisting the three Republic City officers. Raditz retries his assault on the Iron Avengers, hitting them several times. They retaliated by firing more laser beams, but this time, Raditz simply dodged by flying upward, followed by a dropkick intended for Rhodes, who barely caught it, the speed of the drop kick managing to graze bits of the chest parts of his powered armor in the process. Stark used this as an opportunity to fire a beam to Raditz’s face.
Meanwhile, Azula, despite her injuries, managed to land a few hits against her four opponents while she received more injuries in return. “Using more power to kill an already weakened opponen, huh?” Azula scoffed at the uniform the Interpol was now wearing, thinking it was a means to defeat her quickly.
“No Azula.” Chun-Li responded. “It’s to protect people in need. Like those you harmed throughout the Pantheon when you helped Giovanni with his attack.” The Fire Nation princess simply laughed it off, only for Azula to be thrown off balance by Bolin’s Earth-bending; she tried to maintain her balance, but due to the injuries, she couldn’t hold herself a little longer and fell down. In the middle of the mayhem, Run shot his wings at multiple people around the throne room, a few of them almost accidentally hitting Raditz while they damaged Stark and Rhodes’s armors. How did his wings become razor sharp so suddenly? Of the people who were hit were Cammy, Jellyfish Pirate Captain Johnny, Rashid, Major Armstrong, Major Briggs, and Batou. As everyone got cuts as they dodged the feathers, the latter two were fortunate to be undeterred as the feathers hit Major Brigg’s metal arms, and Batou being a cyborg. The Chief Major fired two bazookas each to destroy two of the lions that were attacking Guile, Nash, Parker, Scar, and Ororo, firing a fifth rocket at Homunculus himself while everyone wasn’t looking, only for him to cancel the rocket launcher with a forcefield formed by the red sparks. It was enough to cause some panic in the homunculi. That was good timing there, Chief. As the Iron Avengers began their retaliation against Raditz, Hohenheim decided to get behind everyone. Colonel Mustang and Major General Armstrong observed this particular formation, with the former giving everyone directions. “Everyone, protect the Elrics’s father!” I guess that bastard’s beginning to draw a transmutation to reverse Homunculus’ ritual again. As he did so, Touta, who watched everything in Raditz’s fight with the Iron Avengers, went up to Colonel Curtiss.
“Colonel Curtiss!” The bespectacled Colonel turned his attention to the boy.
“Hm, Yes? Is there something you want from me?”
“Yes. I have something that might be able to hurt that Saiyan.” The two of them went closer as the former began explaining things without everyone else hearing in a hushed volume. “I can get a boost of power and speed by absorbing some electric spells. But, I can only sustain this sort of power for a short period of time.” Hearing this, Colonel Curtiss’s face sharpened, realizing that the seventh UQ holder had a plan.
“What do you intend to do?”
Touta looked at Raditz fighting Stark and Rhodes, then he turned his sights on Run, who shot more feathers at the rest of the group. “I’ll interrupt their fight with Raditz. I’ll give you the signal to cast your electrical spell.” Colonel Curtiss protested alongside Asami before Touta rushed ahead to enact his plan, with the former calming down to help enact it.
“What is he doing!?” Asami cried out before Cyrax pulled her away. “Is he trying to get himself killed against Raditz?!”
“He’s doing something, that’s all I know.” The bespectacled Colonel watched as Raditz and the Iron Avengers created distance between themselves, giving the vampire the time to get in between them, preparing to quickly summon four glyphs surrounding the seventh UQ Holder.
“Get out of the way, kid!” Stark instructed him. “You’re gonna get killed by that Saiyan!” The seventh UQ Holder refused to leave. Raditz gave the boy a smirk.
“So you have a death wish, then, huh?” The long-haired Saiyan chuckled. “Very well. I will grant it to you.” As Raditz flew towards Touta at high speeds, a massive bolt of lightning was summoned through the ceiling, striking Touta and alerted everyone. Asami, as was everyone in our group, was horrified to see what Colonel Curtiss did. It was enough to wake up Azula.
He actually killed his own ally? The Fire Nation princess looked on, disturbed at what just happened. I’d never stoop this low. Unless… A few moments later, everyone realized that Touta wasn’t dead. In fact, his body turned into a mass of electric particles, lighting up the room in the process. Raditz and the Armored Avengers looked on in awe.
“Colonel Curtiss?” Rhodes uttered. “Could you please explain what you did to this-” The War Machine was cut off as the Seventh UQ Holder moved at lightning speeds without warning, and attacked Raditz, searing and singing his armor. Dante quickly transmuted the ground to create a wall. The wall wasn’t fast enough to keep him at bay, instead going even faster, as the boy vampire targeted Run. The winged Jaeger couldn’t react fast enough to Touta attacking which ended with him falling down on the floor. The vampire went for Raditz again, going for a punch. This time, the low-class Saiyan was on his guard and blocked, only for his hands to be shocked upon catching the punch. Despite this, he remained focused. Touta delivered a kick to Raditz’s head, with the latter catching it, only to be electrocuted further. He disengaged from Raditz and went to Asami, reverting back to normal.
“That was amazing…” Guile uttered in astonishment. All this due to Colonel Curtiss’s lightning spell? A smile appeared on his face, impressed by the boy vampire’s display of power. He managed to hurt that warrior. Dante created five tigers that started attacking everyone else.
As she, the Ferret Brothers, and Chun-Li were on the defensive, Beifong destroyed one of the tigers in the process, with Ahsoka destroying two others in the process. The remaining tigers were suddenly destroyed by cannon balls. Everyone suddenly turned to see the entrance, where myself, Alphonse and Teach finally arrived to join everyone else.
“You three joined us at a convenient time, Major Elric.” The Chief Major smiled. After I returned the smile, the three of us looked around the area; from several of allies bleeding from Run’s feathers, to Raditz’s armor being seared (something that surprised all three of us), to Run being defeated. Our arrival, compounded by Touta’s transformation several minutes ago, incited a sense of panic in Homunculus. Once Ice Jerk and his brother arrive here, I’ll put an end to this nightmare, put Homunculus, his children, and Dante out of commission, and return to Winry alive.
A Treacherous Power Vacuum, a Race For Leadership
As told by Jin Kisaragi
At an unknown point after his fight with the Scarred Monk, Askari, having partially recovered from his injuries, arrived outside a certain lab. Resting on a wall, exhausted. That wretched monk… Slowing me down to meet with those I call ‘partners’. A bunch of sanctimonious nonsense, blaming the monk for your affairs when you went out of your own way to ambush him. Just as predatory as Sector Seven’s Mad Dog, and the fool calling himself the ‘King of Heroes.’ I can’t believe I’ve been called in to check on their ‘situation.’ What kind of ‘situation’ are those siblings trying to control? Regaining his breath, he used his front legs to open the door and enter the laboratory. He searched around the dark-colored lab, seeing several humanoid creatures being bound in fluid chambers placed on opposite sides, all of whom were grotesquely transformed into monstrosities. None of them meant anything to this dark lion; he simply moved on to two particular tubes in front of a table, placed next to each other, containing two specific people, both unconscious; the moment in which the beast’s interest seemed to have piqued. “Vergil, I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you from King Bradley in time, friend.” He lowered his head, frowning. “He and his men would have killed me if I were to intervene.” He stopped for a moment, turning his eyes to the woman, Katherine, only for him to form a smirk. A more unpleasant thought, Your friend, on the other hand, might be of more use.
Askari remembered a moment when the half-homunculus, Dante, and the Weskers exited the former’s temple, carrying an unconscious Vergil and Katherine with them, telling him about a possible connection the latter has to the former’s father, Sparda, and how they could benefit from it. So he was on their side the whole time? Hakumen of Six Heroes once said I was an arrogant fool; I haven’t completely lost my pride. The Dark Slayer’s vanity blinded him not just getting outsmarted by the Wesker siblings, but betrayed by the usurper he seemed so civil with as well. That’s unforgivable. With this in mind, his smirk grew even more devious. Perhaps with that demon’s power… A small chuckle bellowed out of his breath. I just might be able to grab power from that pathetic Xanatos. And with the right tools and tricks, I could even wrest control from Maleficent.
I’ll have to thank Kagura for recommending me to join the Majors. Initially, I thought I had the Librarium to cover for everything, but the more time I’ve spent with the other Majors, quirky behaviors notwithstanding, the more I learned, rather quickly, that not only do I have more resources to work with in this dimension of crossing worlds, but I could use this to get knowledge on other threats like this lion here. As the story goes, this cutthroat betrayed and killed his brother, Mufasa, in a selfish bid for more power, and went on to lead his land into ruin until his nephew grew up and took the throne back from him. Even as a murderer, my brother is still a relatively far better person than this bastard. I’ll even venture to say Vergil is easily more honorable than him; at least the demon has a code to speak of.
Footsteps were heard throughout the laboratory. As the footsteps grew louder, Askari turned around to see the male Wesker, Albert, approaching him. “You seem to have taken delight in their captivity. Are you content with our prize, Scar?”
The usurper nodded positively. “With those two sealed, they won’t be a threat to our plans.” He briefly gazed back at the Dark Slayer and his companion being trapped in the tubes before returning to Albert. “I’m leaving this place. It’s too… unlike me.” If one of the monstrosities had enough consciousness to move, they would take offense to this lion. Nevertheless, the usurper left, opening the door and closing it behind him, leaving the area with a devious look on his face. I’ll return here later for more than the human girl. For now, I will bide my time observing things from the shadows. For what purpose does this usurper intend to return to Wesker’s lab besides Katherine, and how long does he expect to maintain his ruse of civility with the Son of Sparda?
Medical Encounter
As told by Roy Mustang
As we fought the Ouroboros, dozens of people in the GUAG hospital are being healed in the process; this ranged from simple healing spells, to standard medical procedures. There is some complex technology to help patients recover, and it involves organs, a sight I’d rather not talk about. Currently, over several dozen patients were being treated; some had injuries that were minor, others more severe and debilitating. Then there were those who were sick to varying degrees. Most of them were discharged after recovery while others remained. Among the medics was a deer standing upright like a human, wearing a hat and pants. Does he happen to be a chimera by any chance? Judging from his appearance, the proportions of his body are very odd, and he doesn’t seem to have any past trauma. Nevertheless, he finished assisting Mordin Solus, an alien physician (a Salarian, in particular), healing English adventurer Robinson Crusoe of a back injury before lifting up the chair and removing the straps attached from him.
“Free to go.” Solus announced as Crusoe prepared to leave.
“…Thank you.” Crusoe winced slightly at the way the Salarian doctor spoke. Despite being an alien, he almost speaks like a robot. I guess he didn’t like big crowds as a child? Nevertheless, Solus spoke again.
“Return in two days time. Check-up is required to verify your pain persists.” The adventurer blinked before nodding and leaving. The Salarian doctor turned to the humanoid deer.
“Pleasure to work with you again, Chopper. Dismissed from medical service.” He told him. “Conference meeting will be held in three weeks.”
“What for?” The deer, Chopper, asked.
“Enact more expansive measures to the Pantheon.” He answered as he placed the medical equipment under a desk.
“Finally.” The deer sighed in relief. “I don’t mind walking to faraway places, but that’s good to know.” He gave the alien physician a thumbs up. “See ya later, Dr. Solus.” The two waved goodbye as the humanoid deer left the room. He walked through the glass doors in the hallways, wondering what to do next. Hm, Maybe I should go to Rudolph and pay him a visit? He took a deep breath as he continued to contemplate his next course of action. Then I’ll go see Luffy and the others afterwards and- His thoughts stopped as looked to his left at a glass door, where he saw a certain woman sleeping in a medical bed. Is that the woman who’s been given sleep medicine recently? He took out a clipboard holding a sheet of paper to look for the woman’s name. Winry Elric… He blinked as he read the name. That name… He peeked through the door; his face changed into that of sorrow. “Poor girl… What she’s been through recently must have been rough.” Chief Beifong told me that she was abducted by a group of benders known as the Equalists, wanting her to create a type of automail that doesn’t replace the organic arms. The sheer fact they didn’t give her any breaks is horrible enough. Fortunately, Fullmetal saved her with help from Rhodes, Mako, and Bolin. The scarred monk told me he and her husband are going to fight against those homunculi together. I hope they return from their battle in one piece. Putting away the clipboard, Chopper stopped peeking through the glass and left Winry. I guess I should get going.
As he prepared to leave the GUAG hospital, he passed by another certain woman we saw on the news at Greed’s bar… one with red hair and bright, slightly gaudy, military clothing. On the sides of her hair falling to her shoulders were spherical ornaments. I’ve witnessed her staring at Fullmetal and his wife walking around a few times. Considering who her childhood is, I think I might understand why. In her possession was a drink of herbal medicine contained in a glass bottle. Did she craft that herself, or did someone make it for her? Either way, as Chopper exited the hospital, the redhead opened the glass door to check on her. Her face, like the humanoid deer’s before her, also became morose as she went close to the medical bed to look at the automail mechanic’s face.
Winry Elric… It’s horrible what you had to go through. She smiled slightly, as if to ease her pain. You have a wonderful husband who went out of his way to save you. She looked down at the bottle of herbal medicine, placing it on the table next to her. This isn’t much, but I hope you’ll take it and recover. She turned around, ready to leave. Before doing so, she turned her around to see Winry one last time. I have a good friend who will work with your husband. May we meet again under better circumstances. As her head faced away from Winry, the woman went for the glass door to open it and left her, presumably to protect people who were repairing the House of Music.
Cracked Chain of Bonds
As told by Tony Stark
Embittered, the brown-haired markswoman who watched Storm and Primera’s fight walked her way through the Pantheon, thinking about everything she had gone through with the latter. We trusted you as a teacher to improve our skills as marksmen… We thought you changed your ways after cutting ties with Aizen. We placed faith in your reformation, Starrk, and you turned around and joined King Bradley and Esdeath? I won’t forgive you. This is the second time I’ve been betrayed. I know betrayal hurts, but I take it this isn’t the first time she’s dealt with this kind of thing before. All that bonding, all those moments together, only to discover that your ‘friend’ jumped ship. The surprise still burned so deeply in her mind as she entered the House of Weapons, noticing two guardians, Cloud Strife and Jackie Chan, outside their temples, ready to fight. The other one, Vash the Stampede, a pacifist and one of the gunslingers who raided the temple of those vampires, could be seen comforting his fellow gunwoman, Rushuna Tendo, the leader of their little group.
Rushuna’s still with Vash… Good to know. Sighing in relief, she waved her hand at her two compatriots as she approached them. “I’m back, guys.” Rushuna, however, noticed the frown on her face.
“You returned here without food, Teana. Did someone steal it from you?” At first, Teana was reluctant to answer, but decided to make it apparent.
“I saw Starrk fighting someone, and went to watch.” The news was enough to cause worry from the two of them.
“Did you join the person fighting him?” Vash asked as Teana came closer to them.
“I didn’t.” An angry scowl came on her face. “I let Captain Unohana take him.” The name she brought up was enough to disturb the two of them.
“That medical captain from the Soul Society?” Rushuna shuddered for a moment. I dread to imagine what she’ll do to Starrk. So she’s heard the stories of that woman having a more ruthless side. “At the very least, he’s still alive and isn’t helping King Bradley and Esdeath.” Overhearing the conversation, Jackie joined in out of curiosity.
“When did Esdeath and Bradley join forces?” He squatted as he listened in, Cloud stepping closer as well. “That is not good news.”
“Several months ago. Around the same time those robots attacked.” Upon Vash’s answer, the well-figured marks-woman blinked and opened her mouth before covering it with her hand. Everyone looked at her as she began to explain.
“I think that’s why Starrk hasn’t contacted us very often. In his own twisted way, he wanted to have more friends.” Although the others looked contemplative of her point to some extent, it wasn’t enough to excuse his treachery.
“Maybe he found us too weak.” Vash lamented, lowering his head. “Does he think our philosophy is holding him back?”
“He’s not the kind of guy who’d be obsessed with his strength, though.” Cloud pointed out, no doubt from having seen Primera around the House occasionally.
Rushuna shook her head “No. In fact, he’s always said he wanted to become weaker so people didn’t die around him.” Teana, however, remained steadfast in her stance.
“The next time we see him, we’ll take him down and detain him for questioning. Whatever his excuse is, we can hear it from him then.” Everyone agreed with Teana’s suggestion, the guardians returning to their posts.
“If you guys want to let off some steam, you can help us patrol for one-eyed monsters.” Cloud offered. “We caught and destroyed some just yesterday, trying to get into the House.” Teana looked to her fellow gunslingers, then again to Cloud, nodding her agreement to help him and Jackie, while Vash and Rushuna stayed back next to the former’s temple. Little did they realize, a figure was watching them from far above. A certain figure, at that. He frowned as he watched his three former companions in the House of Weapons for a few minutes. Without saying anything, he departed the scene. Did that Captain really let him go, or did he escape somehow? Now he’s probably going to help Bradley and the rest of the Ouro-creeps in their future endeavors. I wish the other two markswomen were here to see what a traitorous bastard this guy was and how much he broke Rushuna’s heart.
The Resilient Warrior and the Reaper’s Black Arm
As told by Jin Kisaragi
Inside the Homunculus leader’s lair, my allies continued their fight against the homunculi and their minions; among them were the Fire Nation Princess Azula, the woman I fought earlier, Dante, the alchemist who helped King Bradley and the Weskers in their trap against Vergil and Katherine, the long-haired Saiyan, Raditz, and one of the childish woman’s Jaeger subordinates. It seems that my allies have gotten the upper hand: That Jaeger subordinate is down, and more importantly, that Saiyan’s armor has been damaged and his hand suffering minor burns. Whoever managed to hurt that Saiyan has to be someone really powerful. The homunculus leader, as are the rest of the Homunculi, are now in a state of panic.
I thought the Saiyan would be enough to handle all of them, but one of General Esdeath’s Jaegers is down, and Hohenheim’s sons have arrived to help him. I need to make haste. He turned to Bradley. “Wrath, bring more of your allies to stop them!” The half-homunculus snapped his fingers, and a moment later, that strange officer appeared with two female humanoid robots who had weapons built into them. As they began to attack, the homunculus leader quickly takes out a certain artifact the Sorcerer Supreme showed to Scar and that humanoid deer at his temple via the Eye of Agamotto, and walked to the center-point of the transmutation circle, where the seven captives, bound next to their respective homunculi, seemingly tied to their sin. “At long last, everything is in place once again!” As he opened the artifact, a jewel came out. So that’s the Shining Trapezohedron the sorcerer has warned those two about. The jewel began to glow up. “Come, creature of black magic! Show the Crests the blood they’ve shed in their pasts!” A cloud of smoke appears on top of the homunculus leader. Emerging from the clouds was a black, bat-like creature with a glowing, green eye. It was enough to freak out their enemies.
“What is that!?” Rashid, the man wearing an Arabic uniform, was the first to ask.
“Nyarlathotep.” Major Edward Elric recognized the creature. The name was enough to put everyone, including himself, on alert. The homunculus leader summoned a barrier to prevent them from attacking him.
“He summoned an avatar of the Crawling Chaos? Here?” Parker responded in horror. “Which form is it taking?”
“The Haunter of the Dark.” X-Man Ororo Munroe clarified.
“But how are we going to get past everyone else in front of us?” Bolin, one of the bending officers of Republic City, asked, feeling overwhelmed by all the powerful foes.
“How about we all distract these fellas?” Johnny suggested. “That way, the alchemists here can get around them and attack the head honcho.” Kagura, alongside a few others, nodded in agreement.
“It’ll be difficult…” In spite of the odds, he remained calm. “But if we get enough people to zero in on each of them, it might work.” He looked around to see his fellow colonels, Roy Mustang and Jade Curtiss, alongside Johnny, the spider mutant, and the two iron-suited Avengers Tony Stark and Lieutenant Colonel Jim Rhodes. “Mustang, Curtiss, Johnny, Parker, Stark, Rhodes… Let’s attack the Saiyan together!” He paused and looked at Brother’s acquaintance, Touta Konoe. “Kid, you’re with us as well. You managed to hurt him once. Maybe you can do it again.” He was the one who harmed Raditz? No wonder the witch worked with him during their time together. The boy nodded as he joined them against the Saiyan. Inspector Chun-Li, Major Guile, Delta Red Agent Cammy White, Chief Lin Beifong, and Detectives Mako and Bolin all focused on Azula. Meanwhile, Air Force Captain Charlie Nash, Rashid, Selena, Cyrax, Ahsoka and Major Sakamoto focused on the female humanoids. This left the State Alchemists to deal with Dante. Before they could engage in a huge fight, the Elric brothers went to their father, who was now on his knees, writing on a large sheet of paper as the others defended them.
“Edward, Alphonse… I’m going to draw a transmutation circle that will reverse the one we saw in the sky outside. It will take some time after this battle to complete. Please, help everyone else defend me.” He continued to draw on the circle. both his sons briefly glanced at everyone else before turning their attention to their father.
“It’ll be a tough one to pull off.” Alphonse commented. “Given their power, I doubt we’ll be able to hold them off long enough for you to finish with this area. But we’ll try… Father.” The brothers joined everyone else as the fight to stop these monsters began: Tony and Rhodes, after taking a few hits from Raditz, flew the highest speeds their suits could allow them to ram the super-warrior into a wall, impeding him; they grabbed him by the arms in an attempt to prevent him from moving, with Touta following the two Iron Avengers in an offensive while everyone else is on the defensive against Dante, Azula, and the Abyssals. Even heavily injured against six fighters, Azula still held herself against them, landing a few hits along the way. Major Guile unleashed a Sonic Boom toward Azula, who dodged it and shot fireballs at them. They managed to get out of the way, which gave the Ferret Brothers a small window of opportunity to close in on the Fire Nation Princess. Bolin bent the earth to throw a big rock at Azula, who side-stepped out of the way, enabling Mako to strike her from the right side with a lightning bolt. Unable to react in time, Azula simply blocked the attack with her arms. Angry, the Fire Nation Princess focused her chi to summon a large amount of fire, producing a rather active flame in her hand which she then launched at Beifong. Chun-Li stepped in to do a Kikoushou to repel the attack, but due to the velocity of the ball of fire, the Interpol Inspector recoiled slightly.
“Lin, are you okay?” Chun-Li asked her compatriot. They were on opposite sides, facing Azula.
“Nothing too troublesome here, Inspector.” Beifong remained calm in her battle stance. “I’m just standing my ground.” Good to know. Azula proceeded to channel her chi a second time to repeat the process, only for Bolin to step in and stomp on the floor, raising a metal construct to block it before it could hit Chun-Li. Changing her target to Mako, the Fire Nation Princess channeled enough energy to launch lightning at him. While the older Ferret Brother got electrocuted, he managed to conduct his chi before redirecting it back to Azula. Before Azula could redirect it, she was ambushed by Cammy, who climbed on top of the Fire Nation Princess long enough for the lightning blast to get close and jumped off as it hit Azula. Meanwhile, Johnny, Kagura, Parker, Stark, Rhodes, now joined by the Chief Major, fought Raditz head-on, while Colonel Mustang and Colonel Curtiss assisted from a short distance. Despite their best efforts, the Mid-class Saiyan was only slightly weighed down.
“I’ve never been pushed this far before…” The Jellyfish pirate captain smiled, having blocked an attack from Raditz. Realizing who they’re up against, his smile disappeared. “This one’s gonna be quite a handful.”
“That’s an understatement, Jellyfish.” The spider freak commented as he joined his side. “I can barely dent him even after giving it my all.” Kagura remained serious, having received several injuries to the chest, and one to the arm. Despite the latter attack, he managed to hold his sword fine. The Chief Major, on the other hand, received several hits on her as well, all of them having light dents on her body.
“Keep the pressure on him.” She commanded. “One slip-up, and we all die.” Stark, hovering in the air, landed next to her, on her left side.
“That’s easier said than done, Chief.” Their enemy, however was slightly hindered. Despite getting injured himself, none of his armor was damaged further. Seeing as how nine people could barely scratch him, the Mid-Class warrior laughed. I guess that kid’s attack was a fluke.
“Try everything you can! It won’t be enough to damage my armor!” Colonel Curtiss, however, was about to prepare a magic spell.
“Keep holding him at bay, everyone.” The Chief Major, Kagura, Stark, Rhodes and Johnny nodded as they tried their best to keep Raditz occupied as the bespectacled Colonel prepared to summon a red glyph beneath Raditz. Ahsoka, Rashid, and Major Sakamoto, on the other hand, took on those humanoid females, the Abyssals, who fired their bullets at their enemies. Mio and Ahsoka avoided them. Rashid tried to repel all the bullets, but a few of them got to him. Closing in on the Re-Class and Wo-Class, Ahsoka, with her lightsaber in hand destroyed Re-Class’s weapon mount. Mio, however, was having a harder time with the Wo-Class Captain, parrying and evading the latter’s bullets. Despite her efforts, one of the bullets went through her arms while a few more grazed her clothes. Ignoring this, she powered through and attacked one of the gun turrets, with a energy net that ensnared Wo-Class, followed by a laser moving past the Japanese striker and attacking the Wo-Class unit, knocking her down. Major Sakamoto turned around, seeing that Selena had a laser gun in hand.
“Don’t drop your guard.” Recital reminded the eye-patched Major as she resumed engaging her opponent to see it returning on its feet, while Rashid, Charlie, Guile, and Cyrax engaged the Air Defense Princess. Meanwhile, the Elrics and the other State Alchemists, excluding Mustang and including Major Briggs, who stood behind them, targeted Dante; all of their alchemy overwhelmed hers.
This is too much! Dante scowled as she took several steps back. I can’t think of a way to turn this around. Exerting too much power, Dante, too distracted by the alchemy aiming towards her, was unaware that the prosthetic-armed Special Forces soldier was slowly closing in on her after helping Mio take down Wo-Class in the process. Noticing this, Major General Olivier Armstrong turned her head to her brother.
“Push harder!”
“Of course, sister!” At his sister’s command, Major Armstrong used his alchemy at a faster rate than normal. It’s during this time that Major Elric noticed that Major Briggs was sneaking up on the evil alchemist.
“Accept defeat, Dante! You’re outnumbered by State Alchemists!” Dante fell on one knee as she tried to step out of the way of the combined assault. Before she could evade the combined alchemy of the State Alchemists, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye shot her in the knee, preventing her escape. This gave Major Briggs more than enough time to approach her; he lifted her by the collar before noticing a foul odor.
“Ugh… Damn, you stink.” Does this woman shower often? Not that this is a major concern, but he uppercutted her into a wall, knocking her down.
“Dante’s down.” Alphonse noted. “Let’s penetrate that barrier!” As the other State Alchemists nodded, they, aided by Jax, attacked the barrier in an attempt to destroy it, with Scar rushing in ahead to smash it with his right arm, while the metal-armed Major simply punched it to help. Seeing this, the homunculus leader, with the Shining Trapezohedron, created a sort of moon that levitated into the air. Seeing the moon, the Nyarlathotep Avatar manipulated the construct to generate a green light from it, specifically bearing down on the foreheads of the seven captives. Suddenly, the minds of the captives have been possessed by the Haunter. The homunculus leader raised his arms, gleeful that his ritual is nearing completion.
“My sacrifices, show me the memories of the souls you’ve slaughtered in your pasts… Come forth!” The seven captives heard the voices of the victims they’ve murdered throughout their lives, coupled by the visions of them. As this went on, the captives started to have a more reddish hue traveling through their bodies, as if the souls of their victims had manifested into souls of blood, no doubt summoned by the Haunter’s magical handiwork. As the captives screamed in fear, their energy, in addition to the souls of their victim’s blood, traveled out from them into a pipeline on the ground. While some of the energy was given to the homunculi their respective captives were tethered to, the rest was more dangerously passing through to a contraption tied to the Homunculus leader to form an extremely large and potently glowing Philosopher’s Stone. The homunculus leader sported a wide grin on his face. “Yes… At long last… I can feel it. Power… A Great Philosopher’s Stone… Without interference!”
As everyone opposing him attempted to stop the ritual, Vegeta, the Saiyan Prince, one of the sacrifices, received a vision of fighting his well-known rival, another Saiyan named Son Goku, at a tournament, after he killed numerous spectators, the latter calling him out for selling his soul to Babidi for more power. The vision faded and another vision emerged, this time of the prince hugging what appeared to be his son before he sacrificed himself against a pink humanoid being that looked like it was made out of billions of strands of bubble gum.
“Where… am I?” As he slowly began to resist the Haunter’s control, the Saiyan Prince started seeing a glimpse of the creature itself. “Is that a creature controlling my mind? Foolish monster… You think I’ll bow to some freak like you? You’re mistaken!” His fear now turning to anger, the Saiyan Prince started to yell, now using all of his ki to resist with all his might; his immense power and ki starting to develop cracks on both the pipelines and the contraptions, slowing down the process. The yell was enough to alert all of the homunculi.
“W-what’s happening?” Lust, the female homunculus, looked on in horror, as did the others. Envy, the homunculus whose hair resembled a pine tree, was the first to vocalize his disbelief of the prince’s resistance.
“How is he still conscious after all that!?” The other Homunculi start noticing the rate of the souls being transferred to them have slowed down. Being tethered to Vegeta, Greed was the first to notice what was happening. The other High Command minions began to turn around as well, witnessing what just happened.
“The witch and I knocked him out cold!” Raditz shouted in utter disbelief. “How can he still hold out against the monster’s mind control!?” The Prince’s power was enough to develop more cracks in the constraints, shaking the ground around the temple in the process.
…
Me and Brother arrived outside the House of Otherness on my icicle, having to detour to Saya’s temple beforehand to see if anything happened to her. Even though Parker made a call to Bruce Wayne’s butler. Thankfully, as he had told Parker, her temple hasn’t been damaged. I’m glad she’s fine; as we made our way into the homunculus leader’s temple to help everyone, we noticed a blue light surrounding the temple. It has to be it. Brother looked at the ground, noticing it was starting to shake. Who’s causing this Earthquake? He shifted his focus to me. “What is that blue light supposed to be? Some sort of alchemical ritual?” I looked a little closer, remembering what was discussed in the rebel homunculus’ place.
“The ritual they spoke of back at Greed’s bar… I’m pretty sure it’s starting. I need to make haste.” As I pushed for the icicle to travel at a slightly faster speed, Brother looked at his right hand.
If that masked freak is with them, I’ll ambush him and take him down first. He first looked at what was ahead before looking at me. “Don’t let this sled of yours crash on the way to that bastard’s hideout!” I’ll try not to. As we were about to enter the homunculus leader’s temple, he looked at his hand again. “Restriction 666 released… Dimensional interruption imaginary number formed… BlazBlue activated!” As a dark glow emitted in Brother’s right arm, I saw a glimpse of red sparks through a window and heard a yell that was obnoxiously loud as we entered the temple. Very splendid for the homunculi to have taken a liking to rock band concerts. Brother covered his left ear with his left hand while I didn’t. I’m going to have a migraine after this fight. “Who yells at the top of their lungs in the middle of a ritual?”
“We’re about to find out, Brother.” I slowed the icicle and steered it slightly downward, where a long flight of stairs would be, leading us down to a long hallway with several rooms, and everything else started shaking more heavily. We ignored the rooms and went straight, leading us to another long flight of stairs to run on, the earth vibrating. This time, there were rooms, but a long path leading us to the homunculus leader’s throne room, where our allies and enemies were fighting. Slowing down the icicle, I was shocked to learn that the renowned Jedi was a captive, a revelation that made me frown. The homunculi caught him. I got him exposed. He and his apprentice, who was also in the room, were planning a counter-attack against a deity named Nicol Bolas. My actions could lead to Melkor and his subordinates exposing a spy opposing them. Brother, however, was more stumped to learn that the Saiyan was the one doing the yelling.
“So Vegeta was yelling the whole time?” His face turned into a more droll expression, looking at the cracked pipes. “I hope he can pull through…” Afterward, he noticed that everyone on both sides stopped to see the Saiyan Prince resisting. The Dark One turned his attention to the homunculus leader, now a humanoid-like monster. That squiggly monster is the one conducting this whole thing? I’ve seen weirder things in this place. Still, I better not screw this up. We got off the icicle as the Saiyan Prince, shaking with energy while gritting his teeth within the restraints, once again resumed yelling. Everyone else watched as the Haunter tried to double down on its magic towards the Saiyan Prince to no avail. I didn’t think he would be this powerful, causing damage to the temple, but then again, neither did Envy and his siblings.
“How is that prince still resisting even after everything we’ve devised against him!?” The other homunculi can only watch as their Father helped the Haunter wear the Saiyan Prince down. While Vegeta took the damage, he shrugged it off like drops of water, still continuing to break free.
“You’re late, Jinny.” Kagura had a stern expression on his face, knowing we could have arrived earlier. I apologize, but we had to check on Saya before we came to you guys and consider the possibility of Bi-han ambushing us, though the latter didn’t come to pass. “Where’s that brother of y-” He stopped as he noticed Brother being next to that spiky-haired boy. “Oh, there he is.” I rushed to everyone else, trying to get an explanation.
“Someone tell me what’s going on?” I asked with great urgency. “Why is the Saiyan Prince screaming like he’s charging up energy?” Rhodes stepped in to explain everything.
“The Homunculus summoned a creature with some magical artifact, followed by a small moon, which the creature generated a green light from, putting all these captives under some form of hypnosis. Vegeta broke out of it somehow, and now he’s doing something with his power to disrupt the flow of the homunculi’s transmutation process.”
“What?” Stark turned, caught by surprise by the latter portion of what his friend had explained. Turning on the infrared display and looking down toward the pipes on the floor, The Iron Avenger saw that the heat signatures of the energy circulating through the pipes were not all the same in brightness; in particular, certain more luminous blocks of heat were either moving more slowly or outright switching directions away from the homunculus leader or any of the other homunculi. “You’re kidding…is he actually doing what I think he’s doing?” As this happened, Greed laughed at his siblings and his ‘father.’
“Picked on the wrong son of a bitch… arrg!” The rogue homunculus was both grinning and grunting in pain, catching Beifong’s attention. She began to go to him.
“Greed!” She tried to come closer to rescue him, but he protested, sharply looking up towards her.
“Don’t interfere, Beifong!” The Republic Police Chief stopped in her tracks at the request, which he had practically growled out through the pain. “Get a… sense of what’s happening underground!” The Police Chief earthbent the sole of her right shoe open so she could get a foot on the ground, and immediately her seismic sense caught a view through the pipes as well; certain points seemed to be getting clogged by blocks of heat energy that were fixed in place, impeding other blocks of energy that were trying to move towards the homunculus leader.
“I see it!” She exclaimed, looking mightily impressed. “He’s bending the soul energy that’s being taken from him and using it to create roadblocks in the pipeway!” So that’s what he’s doing. We continued to watch as the Homunculus leader and the Nyarlathotep Avatar concentrated even more of their effort in trying to overpower the Saiyan Prince.
“Cease your resistance, prince!!!” Homunculus bellowed, a tinge of desperation betrayed by the tone of his voice. Even at the monsters’ best, the attempt didn’t simmer down Vegeta in the slightest.
“Shut your mouth!!!” The prince rebutted. “I am the last crown prince of an ultimate warrior race, one whose pride and penance alike both stand on my shoulders! All the… great and terrible things we’ve done in this life are my cross to bear… not your ticket on a path to POWERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!”
With yet another burst of powerful ki, the temple shook again, and this time the pipeline itself started to be affected. There were points being bloated by the clogging of souls, and even small tears developing at a few spots. More importantly, a slight reddish energy began to flash in and out around the whole transmutation, before suddenly fading out completely. The blonde Colonel took notice of that particular development.
“The pipelines are breaking…” Colonel Curtiss said aloud. “The barrier’s down!” Hearing Jade’s word of the barrier being down, Brother, still having the Azure Grimoire activated, rushed towards the Homunculus leader at a high speed while the latter was still focused on trying to keep Vegeta down. Before the other homunculi could warn their leader of the Grim Reaper, The Dark One had impaled the abomination of science through his chest. The leader yelled in pain as the Grim Reaper ran his claws in a little deeper.
“Arrg!” He grunted in pain as his ‘children’ looked on in horror.
“Father!!” Five of them cried out in unison as their ‘father’ looked down to his chest getting impaled by my brother.
“You’re still kicking from that?” He asked the homunculus leader in a mocking tone, smiling. “You know, I could just rip out all the souls like I did with the last bastard I fought, but for you, I’ll do something different.” And to think the Armored Avenger doubted my brother. Everyone watched as he used his grimoire to drain and destroy the souls manifested from the enemies, evoking a scream from the Father Homunculus. His children watched, both in disbelief and horror, at what they’re seeing before them.
He isn’t just draining away the souls that Father brought out, but he’s destroying the souls that are coming to us too? Just when everything was coming to fruition… A deeply annoyed look was now on the half-homunculus’s face, to the extent that it bordered on pure anger. The traitor failed to stop us, yet, this ‘Grim Reaper’ succeeds… Is this some sort of pathetic joke? Had the demon been a little more resourceful and cooperative, he may have done some damage to their plans. The female homunculus now had a look of fear on her face.
The wraith took careful steps to make sure we never truly involved that man’s sister. Are we really going to be stopped here again despite our precautions? As much as it irks me, I’ll give the former Lin Kuei some measure of credit. It was a smart tactic to avoid being up to their necks in enemies from our connections alone; I presume he’s done his due diligence to get a good deal of knowledge on the three of us. The trash made so many friends here in the Pantheon, that if they attacked her or her temple, then Brother, Tsubaki, Lieutenant Nanaya, or worse yet all three, could’ve rallied all of their friends who stayed after the Rocket leader’s attack, possibly raiding the homunculus leader’s lair in the process, giving us a clear victory against them. Envy, the homunculus he recruited for this scheme to pit me and my brother against each other, was more frustrated.
Damnit! We should’ve left those monkey men out of this and bound Greed to the Mad Queen instead! Whose idea was it to include a Saiyan, let alone bind him to a homunculus? It’s foolish, using someone more powerful than you as a captive to perform this scientific ritual. Her bare minimum energy along with her bomb-rigged massacre victims could have tricked his souls into coming out without this stinkin’ problem! Greed, on the other hand, laughed at his siblings, grunting in pain for a few seconds, before turning to my brother, now with a shocked look on his face.
This is what this guy can do with that toy of his? He looked at his right arm as it continued to deprive the homunculus of his souls. I thought he was bluffing back at the bar, but he actually did it… Guess that title wasn’t just for show. If I were to ever throw down with this bastard, I could be in trouble even with my game face on. As the souls continued to be drained away from the Philosopher’s Stone, a certain specter emerged from a portal, quickly realizing what was transpiring. And I happened to compliment him, too…
“Impossible…” He uttered as he witnessed what happened. “The Grim Reaper struck the Eastern Philosopher?” Wasting no time, Bi-Han teleported near Brother and summoned a portal lining up with them. He tackled the Dark One, taking him away from the fight and releasing the scientific abomination.
“Brother…!” I cried out. We were so close…! With him gone, the souls resumed the process of transferring the souls back to the Great Philosopher’s Stone and the other homunculi, albeit more slowly than it did before. As Dante recovered, Lust, Envy, Pride, and Bradley could only watch in horror as the Haunter slowly fizzled out of existence.
“Nyarlathotep’s disappearing…” Major Elric noted. “What’s happening now?” Everyone continues to watch as the homunculi briefly glow up in red. Despite the setbacks, the Great Philosopher’s Stone was formed, and Father Homunculus consumed it before removing the contraptions completely, while Vegeta collapsed. Greed, however, was in a weakened state.
“It is complete.” The Homunculus leader’s announcement had made a majority of us tremble in fear. “Rise, my children.” With the Transmutation complete, the other homunculi freed themselves, leaving everyone else unconscious. Envy laughed confidently, knowing that their power boost was enough to turn the tide.
“Your luck just ran out, punks! Now, get ready to be crushed beneath our heels!” As the homunculi all assembled with their allies, Raditz went to Greed, picked up his body, and threw him to Beifong.
“I’ll take my sweet time enacting my revenge against you two before the Prince wakes up.” The Elrics looked at their father, who was still trying to write the transmutation.
Please, Father… Alphonse had a look of desperation on his face, as he went into a fighting stance again. Please draw that circle in time. I don’t think we can buy any more time for you. This is going to be harder than I thought… I don’t think my inclusion here will even the odds.
An Improper Dose of Power
As told by Roy Mustang
Despite the efforts of Vegeta and Bloodedge, the Ouroboros managed to complete their Great Philosopher’s Stone transmutation, and with that, all the homunculi joined everyone we were fighting. The odds are stacked against us now; as the enemy began their attack again, the Saiyan Raditz targeted Police Chief Lin Beifong and the exhausted Greed, beating the two of them with neither of them having any chance to fight back, almost crippling Beifong. Coward, attacking someone at their weakest. Mako and Bolin tried to interfere and help, but that wasn’t enough due to the immense power advantage Raditz has over them. As this happened, Sloth tackled Major Armstrong into a wall, damaging his back in the process. This prompted the Iron Avengers, plus Rashid, and the Elric’s friend Touta Konoe, to intervene and take him on. Before Gluttony could target anyone, he found himself entangled in a net of green energy; Cyrax grabbed Asami and moved her away from the fight before the fat homunculus broke free. Raditz, however, laughed as he pummeled Greed, Chief Beifong, Mako, and Bolin; the former, even with his Ultimate Shield fully activated, struggled to defend himself and other three from this cowardly Saiyan. “I’ll be sure to finish you before the Prince wakes up.” Raditz gloated as Greed delivered a punch to his chest, only to heavily hurt himself in the attempt. Chief Beifong, assisted by the intervention of Tenzin, used their bending to move the Saiyan away from the rogue homunculus. Both of them came to his aid.
“Can you still fight and defend us?” Tenzin asked, worried about his condition.
“I broke my hand…” Greed’s eye widened in disbelief as he clutched it in immense pain. “I know that Saiyan’s strong… but this shouldn’t be possible…!”
Beifong gasped as her eyes widened as well. “Greed!” She crouched closer, looking over his injured appendage. “Seriously, you should’ve let me-”
“We’re not doing this now, Lin!” Greed quickly shouted to cut her off before she could say more about his condition. “Just give me a few seconds to…ugh, damnit…to rearrange my hand and…put on the sh…argh!” If he’s straining to even speak, his hand is in more pain than it should be. As I was too busy helping Majors Jin Kisaragi and Mio Sakamoto fight King Bradley, all the while burning Envy in the process before he could get near me (with help from Colonel Curtiss and the Lieutenant), Colress’ Metagross, now in its mega-evolved form, attacked Pride.
As all of this went on, Vegeta, despite everything happening to him up to this point, slowly regained consciousness.
Where am I? Opening his eyes, he learned that he was in the Homunculus leader’s temple; to him, the place had a dark look to it, something that bothered him somewhat. Damnit, Raditz took me to this dark place. I need to get out of here. Bulma’s going to be worried sick. As looked around, he witnessed the huge fight going on between us and the Ouroboros. As he examined the area further, he saw Raditz attacking Greed, Beifong, Tenzin, Mako, and Bolin. He remembered everything. That bastard… Regaining consciousness, he rushed to ambush and tackle his former subordinate, moving him away from the five of them. A large number of people stopped fighting.
“You’re still functioning…” Raditz uttered in disbelief, seeing his ex-boss before him. “Damn You!”
“Once I’m done with you here, your accomplice is on borrowed time.” Vegeta promised, making his intentions for retribution clear. He then noticed Raditz’s armor being damaged. “Your armor’s looking a bit worse for wear these days. I can’t imagine it got strained from my little soul struggle with that abomination.” He looked around at all of us before returning his gaze back to Raditz. “Which one of these Earthlings took advantage of you holding back and caught you by surprise?” The mid-class Saiyan, however, seemed annoyed in answering his question.
“Some spikey-haired bastard child electrocuted me!” He pointed a finger toward Touta. “Why does it concern you, Prince?” His blunder only happened because Homunculus told him not to be too destructive with his power. The Saiyan Prince turned his head to face the boy, surprised.
The same boy me and Kakarot encountered months ago? The one who fought a parasite similar to the Tuffle Baby? Upon learning this, he closed his eyes smiling. I was right. His fighting spirit’s reminiscent of a Saiyan’s. He turned his body around to face the boy. “So you’re the one who managed to hurt my former underling here.”
“If this guy used to work for you, that almost sounds like a threat.” The boy commented.
“No.” The prince rebutted. “It’s a praise of honor. Harming a Saiyan with your power isn’t something many are capable of accomplishing in this place.” Considering the stakes in this fight, harming a Saiyan, let alone two, is definitely not an easy feat. Touta, however, seemed flustered by the praise.
“I…I don’t know what to say.” As the two talked, Major Kisaragi looked at the Saiyan Prince.
That’s honorable from someone who once lusted for power. He’s almost too similar to that half-demon. It must be that Vergil person Miss Kiryuin thought about. Otherwise, I don’t know who he’s referring to. Have they ever met and fought each other before? Vegeta, however, continued to compliment Touta.
“Take pride in your strength, boy.” He balled his left hand into a fist, closing it into his fist, pulling it into his chest. “Hone it further, and someday you might be able to surpass the ones who came before you in your world.”
Inspired by the speech from the Saiyan prince, the UQ holder smiled. “I’ll try my best, Mr. Vegeta!”
“Good. Now…” He returned his focus on Raditz, now with a serious look on his face, getting into a fighting stance. “Where was I?” The Prince was suddenly coated in a blue-white, seemingly divine aura, with his hair having turned turquoise blue. Raditz appeared bewildered at the sight, but still performed a similar transformation, but with a scream of power that momentarily shook the temple, gold being the color of choice, and his already ridiculously long hair becoming even slightly longer than his own body. Several of the homunculi, namely Lust, Pride, Envy, and their Father, looked mildly displeased at the mid-class super warrior for that exertion of strength. Not surprising, really; they did tell him when he came in not to damage the lair. Nonetheless, the two Saiyans began to fight.
Fullmetal, who’d landed an attack on Dante alongside his brother with alchemy before stopping when the two Saiyans powered up, looked around and saw the pain Greed was in and began to look concerned. He then turned to the construct that had held the traitor homunculus in place along with the Prince of Saiyans. He noticed a medium-sized funnel near Greed’s confinements, behind the traitor homunculus himself and above an extra unsealed pipe, as his brother approached him.
Instead of being sealed like the second pipes on the other constructs, this one’s wide open and has a funnel attached to it. If this is what they hooked Greed up to when the ritual started… no! He came to an unpleasant realization, as his eyes widened with a horrified expression on his face. Homunculus used Vegeta’s power to push the souls out of Greed. If he’s in immense pain now… He turned to the five people tending to the rebel homunculus. “Chief, do any of you have a bottle in your possession for Greed right now?”
Chief Beifong raised an eyebrow. “You’re asking me this now, Fullmetal? Why would you-” As she focused on Greed, who was now breathing heavily, she noticed what appeared to be pink sweat on his ‘skin’ before learning what was about to happen, remembering the stories about the traitor homunculus. “He’s going to liquify in a matter of time…” She came to Greed’s defense. “Hang on a little longer. We’ll get you a water bender to put you in a cube. For now, we have to make sure your father can’t touch you.”
“I owe ya one, Lin.” The traitor homunculus let out a groaned chuckle. “Too bad you guys will have to celebrate Easter without me.” The two smiled as Beifong and Tenzin carried him away from the mayhem while Vegeta wasted no time dominating his former subordinate, the latter being at his strongest form. While the Saiyan prince countered almost all of Raditz’s strikes, the latter managed to land a few punches and kicks, but even those didn’t harm his former commander that much. Only his most powerful blast managed to do some damage, most of that being to Vegeta’s clothes. As Vegeta continued to overpower Raditz, Lust stood with Gluttony by her side and watched the fight, not pleased with the results.
Mid-way through the fight, Rhodes and Ororo freed an unconscious Juri, Anakin, Shinji, and a muscular man Nash and Selena identified as Brock Samson from their constraints and grabbed them back to our side without the Ouroboros noticing a thing.
“Unbelievable.” Lust uttered to herself. “He served his purpose to us already, but this is just pitiful. I would’ve rather he turned tail than to see him prove what weakling garbage he is.” You’re one to talk, homunculus. I guess you and your brethren like to dig deep holes for yourselves. And, what did we know, it’s just our luck: As Vegeta sent Raditz falling from the air with a double axe handle to his back, he then turned to Lust, having somehow heard the homunculus, right as Raditz cratered into the floor.
“Excuse me, vile woman.” Realizing that the prince was talking to her, the female homunculus quivered in fear. “Can you please tell us all, to what species you owe the power and blood that courses through your veins?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Lust groaned in annoyance, having to hear such a question.
“Just say what you are and get it over with!” The prince said, being straight-forward with her.
“I’m a homunculus, obviously.” She sighed. “What’s your point?”
“Good. Now for the next question.” Having heard the ‘weakling garbage’ insult, Vegeta became disgusted. “Where the hell did you get the authority to be so absolute in your ability to judge the quality of a Saiyan warrior? Because I don’t recall ever giving scum like you that permission!” This is coming from the guy who killed his last subordinate for being outmatched by another Saiyan? Someone needs to give these two a black pot and black kettle. Nevertheless, hearing the word ‘scum’ directed towards Lust was enough to enrage Gluttony. A reminder of me killing Lust.
“Scum!? You’re talking about Lust!” He stepped forward, seeming ready to attack the vastly stronger Saiyan Prince. “You watch your mouth!” Vegeta, however, wasn’t fazed by the threat.
“Why? So you can annoy me with your foul breath? Quite frankly I’d rather die!” He raised his left arm, extending it to Lust’s direction, forming an energy ball. Her intent to keep calm was betrayed as she gulped in fear of getting herself and her siblings annihilated. “On second thought, how about your bastard mistress die instead!? Big Bang Attack!” Vegeta shot the ball toward Lust as her eyes widened in fear, seeing her life flash before her eyes… only for the ball to be intercepted and wiped out by a powerful beam of light that proceeded to blow a hole through the wall of the lair. Everyone turned to Raditz, who recovered, breathing heavily.
“Don’t think… you’ve won just yet… Prince.” Raditz commented weakly. “I’m still not finished with you.” He flew and tackled the rebel Prince, moving him away from Lust and Gluttony. Hm… if I have to take a guess about Raditz’s attitude, Nappa, the other once-surviving Saiyan, had already told him how his superior killed him after losing to that Earth-raised Saiyan migrant Son Goku.
All things considered, Vegeta was displeased with his fellow Saiyan. Kicking him away for distance, the two stood faced off in mid-air once again, with Raditz half-panting, half-scowling, while Vegeta wore a deep frown.
“We’re not done, huh?” Vegeta paraphrased with a tone of disgust, his face becoming even more grim before he spoke next. “Give me a minute.”
And with that he quickly dashed up on the taller Saiyan and began pounding his face and guts in with a relentless flurry of punches, before uppercutting him right into the air, flying up after him, and continuing with the barrage. He sent him back with a spin kick, but Raditz managed to kick off the wall instead of crashing into it, flying headfirst towards Vegeta, who crossed his arms over his chest in a solid guard. Absorbing the blow to almost no effect, the Prince jabbed him in the face to make him step back, then created a ring of energy around the Saiyan’s neck and grabbed it to hold him as if by a shirt.
“Let me guess; you’re pissed because of how I ran things back in the day? Because I never wished you back to life? Because I killed Nappa? Is that it!?” Vegeta asked, though in a telling way that said he already knew this and would soon be making another point with it.
“G…go to…hell…you–AGHH!” Raditz’ defiance got him an elbow to the gut, and even more punishment courtesy of Vegeta’s fists.
“These alchemical parasites stole power from a literal Saiyan God, and yet you’re still stronger than all of them by orders of magnitude!” Vegeta shouted, intent on driving a home truth into his underling’s thick skull while continuing to treat the man as a punching bag. “How the hell is your pride okay with answering to the likes of them about anything!?” If Raditz was a human like us, he would’ve been killed by them. I guess he’ll never move on from his desire for revenge. I may know the feeling, but I also know what a waste of talent that is.
Confusion and irritation were all that entered Envy’s mind, though, having heard the whole speech as he watched Vegeta send Raditz into the wall with a dashing thrust kick.
“Hey! What the hell is he getting at!?” Damned bastard will never know the fruits of hard work. Fullmetal joined in and smirked at this, seeing where this conversation was going.
“Believe it or not, I think I know.”
“Huh?” You know what? I was right about you the first time, Envy. You really are an imbecile, intellectually. Fullmetal, nonetheless, decided to lecture him, while Vegeta continued his assault on Raditz by firing a torrent of small energy balls into his spot as an imprint on the wall.
“With those incredible super-warriors, I bet it takes a lot more than just storing their energy in your body to get a handle on most of their power, doesn’t it?” That’s an oddly unique way to interpret Equivalent Exchange, more specifically, the Law of Natural Providence. “It’s not like putting a heavy weight on your back and then getting it lifted off you after you busted your ass for years!”
I remember hearing the brothers theorize once that Alphonse’s body was absorbing nutrients from Fullmetal across the Gate of Truth as one of the side effects from when they committed the taboo of attempting human transmutation. If that’s true, what he just described would perfectly explain how he got so much stronger in the middle of the fight against Homunculus when Al gave him his missing arm back on the Promised Day.
Envy, given that he was already dead when that happened, and he’s an idiot, still failed to understand the message. “That doesn’t even make any sense!” That’s when I stepped in.
“But it does, and there’s something else.” He, alongside Lust, raised an eyebrow. “You’re artificial beings using foreign souls as internal batteries. Your bodies may not even be fit to master ki energy in the first place. And even if they were, those souls from the Prince didn’t come without a fight, did they?”
Lust had an angry scowl on her face, having heard my entire explanation. “Damn you, Mustang…” She raised her voice, expressing her strong displeasure of this revelation. “Waiting until after we completed the ritual to bring something like that up!” I bellowed a chuckle, one of contempt for their lack of foresight.
“Never thought about that?” She pointed a finger at me as if threatening me with a talon. Seeing that coming, I snapped my fingers so hers didn’t have a chance, leaving the Lascivious smarting in pain at the quick burn. “Of course you didn’t.” I looked at Vegeta’s muscles as he fought, using them to send one last message. “When you have to work to get good at what you do, it’s amazing what you’ll pick up.” After I said this, Vegeta punched Raditz in the gut again after dodging a punch from the latter, right before sending him into the floor with a dive kick, following that with a stomp to his back, damaging the latter’s armor even more. Raditz screamed in pain as the damage reverted him back to normal. The Prince of Saiyans landed in front of him; he looked down at his former underling, lying on the floor a beaten mess at the conclusion of their fight. He suddenly depowered himself from Super Saiyan Blue back to normal.
“You’re a strong and clever warrior, as a Saiyan should be, but you’ve still got a lot to learn.” Vegeta began to face away from him. “Abandon this nonsense about taking revenge on Kakarot and myself, or gaining respect through Melkor and his pond of scum. Get stronger, come back and fight me again, and then we’ll see what you’ve got. Understand?” Just as he was about to move, the defeated Raditz still had enough energy to move his head, struggling to get up.
“And where the…hell are you…going?” Raditz said weakly.
“Somewhere I can be sure that half-robed abomination won’t be springing a trap to siphon my ki energy.” He responded back. “You’d be best served to take the same course after you recover.” Vegeta began to walk away from the battlefield, something that didn’t sit well with Tony Stark.
“So you’re just gonna leave the fight like this?” This admonishment is perfectly understandable, given the Saiyan Prince could easily defeat them all. Then again, so was the reasoning Vegeta was about to give as he stopped and turned his head to the Iron Avenger.
“I’m going to look for my son!” That’s what got him roped into this mess? To meet his son Trunks? It must be a crazy coincidence for us to meet him here. He must be talking about the one from the future timeline. “If you can’t win this fight, then it’ll be best for me to come back with Trunks and myself at full strength.” He turned away, taking a couple more steps to leave, only to pause again. “Then again, you don’t need me to win.”
“Say what now?” Parker said, both confused and somewhat displeased as Vegeta blasted a hole in the ceiling.
“The fact that you’re all still capable of drawing breath after everything they just pulled betrays the lie that these monsters have achieved any sort of perfect state of godhood.” It’s already telling these homunculi have yet to understand the value of effort, and even if they’ve come to learn even a sliver of the subject matter, anyone who strived for perfection will end up complacent, as a few scientists in the Pantheon can point out. The prince went on further. “But if they’re somehow able to steal much more of my power, or worse, the ability to know how to use it, your chance of victory would instantly turn to dust. I’m doing you all a favor by leaving this fight right now.” That, too, is a good point. “So stand the hell up, defeat these bastards, and show my cowardly underling here what true warrior spirit is!” As he flew toward the hole he created, an angry Lust redirected her focus to Vegeta.
“Why, you…!” She began to extend her claws, hoping to catch the Prince of Saiyans mid-flight. Her ‘father’, however, stepped forward.
“Let him go.” Lust ceased to her movement, letting Vegeta depart the lair. “We will see the Super Saiyan Prince again in time.” Homunculus redirected her toward us. “For now, focus on the enemies that stay before us.” Fullmetal was among the few who expressed agitation about the Saiyan leaving us.
“Who the hell does that guy think he is!?” He raised his fist at the hole in the ceiling Vegeta used to leave. “If he’s gonna leave because of what those bastards just did, he could at least do it without talking down to us like…!” His ranting was interrupted by the Major General.
“Quiet, Elric!” She bellowed, immediately reining him in. “Don’t forget yourself.” We all focused on the homunculi and Bradley’s High Command.
“She’s right. And so is he.” Vegeta’s departure was at least in line with what a warrior’s spirit really is; a majority of us are soldiers, and so was he. “The empty against the alive is exactly how it should be. To hell with deciding this outcome by the power of a Saiyan GOD!” I pulled my glove tighter as I launched a large blast of flame alchemy at Envy, burning him and, to a lesser extent, some of his siblings (Gluttony and Sloth stayed still while Homunculus, Bradley, Pride, and Lust got away.) up immediately as he screamed in pain for a brief period of time. On top of killing Hughes, he was also an accomplice in the deception of pitting Major Kisaragi against his brother over their sister; according to Colonel Mutsuki, that ‘Grim Reaper,’ the one who attacked Homunculus during the ritual, is in the process of reforming himself legally. It’s fitting that I punish him for this.
As the flames died down, the jealous, pine tree-haired homunculus was reduced to a smoking crisp of a mess, groaning in immense agony. “What…the hell?” His voice was fragile in tone as he slowly regenerated from the burn wounds. “Why do I… always have to…?” Not having any of his ploys for sympathy, I interrupted him.
“Because you still haven’t learned your lesson!” Having said this, I turned to Dante, knowing what to say next. “Isn’t that how it works, Alchemist of the Deep Forest?”
She blinked. “And why are you asking me this?” Fullmetal (with several of us following his lead) rushed to the enemy, resuming the fight with Raditz knocked out; he himself in particular aimed for her, clasping his hands.
“Because you’re the main one who should be burning in Hell!” He lunged at her, his automail transmuted into an armblade above the elbow, ready to strike at her. The fight began to escalate, with both sides receiving injuries. As this happened, Asami, who was seen with Cyrax who was guarding her, and Beifong, Tenzin, Mako, and Bolin, who were carrying the weakened Greed away from the fight. She looked at the hole Vegeta created.
“That man said he was looking for his son…” Her face lit up. “Is he talking about that super-warrior of hope from the future?”
“I believe so.” as Cyrax nodded, the engineer realized something.
“That guy went missing after the Rainbow Rocket incident just like Korra! Why did everyone just let him go?” I guess we should look for those rodents who infiltrated Bradley’s barracks in the House of Personal Appearance. Maybe they’ll know if he’s among them, however small they are. “Someone should’ve told him about their connection to Giovanni!”
The only public facts about whatever their connection is involves Azula betraying Giovanni to be captured by Bradley, and now turning up as a member of Bradley’s group. Beyond that, the only one who’s likely to have more details right now is that blonde Puella Magi. Heh, I guess the Elrics should visit their ‘descendant’ after this fight is over. The yellow Cyber Lin Kuei, however, thought of it differently.
“The Saiyan Prince already knows who the enemy is, and that he needs to find his son.” He watched as Johnny sliced off one of Gluttony’s arms, while the Armored Avengers helped the Armstrongs in their fight with Sloth. “He is following what he has discerned to be the best tactical decision.”
This didn’t sit well with the engineer as she watched Bradley get a slight advantage over Majors Jin Kisaragi and Mio Sakamoto; Run, who was injured enough to be unable to fly, didn’t give Nash, Rhodes, Colress’s Metagross, and Batou too much trouble. Even after everything that happened, it still wasn’t enough to get her out of her bitter attitude, given that the ex-Fuhrer is still drawing breath. “The best tactical decision was beating a red hot paper trail out of Bradley to find out where they’re gonna move the captives to!” The one time I fought the ex-Fuhrer, he evaded my flames and overpowered me without too much effort.
Shaken by the speech beneath his helmet, Cyrax remained in a tranquil state. Perhaps he’s been in this kind of situation before? Nevertheless, gave out some good news she didn’t expect to hear.
“Lin Kuei spies have learned that he has already tried confronting Team Rocket to no avail.” Interesting. Did his clansmen stumble upon the Prince on their own, or did Major Briggs inform them of this? “Flying off the handle with threats will not bring the answer either of you seek.” This was enough to surprise Asami.
“Just how do you guys know this already?” Beifong overheard their conversation as she and the other benders took Greed to a wall, away from the fight. She was also shocked to learn this as the cyborg began to respond.
“Our clan has the means to assist your search. We understand your feelings, but you must keep your composure.” As we’ve all discussed, forgetting to do so always tends to get someone or another needlessly killed. “Remember that your Avatar, and your friends, need you alive.” She should be relieved that the Chief and the Elrics decided to have him with her. Greed’s been weakened to a decaying state, soon to become just a Philosopher’s Stone as we speak, so in addition to Touta, she’ll have to make do with the cyborg warrior when she looks for Korra after we leave from this fight.
Battle of Amazons
As told by Charlie Nash
As the battle with the Ouroboros continued, the smoke from the flames Mustang used to blast Envy began to spread. Even with Raditz taken down by Vegeta, the fight was still difficult; Inspector Chun-Li fought Azula, defending the Republic City benders as they escorted Greed out of the fight, while Touta and Major Briggs helped Major Armstrong battle Sloth. Meanwhile, me, Batou, Lt. Colonel Rhodes, and the Pokemon Metagross belonging to Dr. Colress, all focused on the Jaeger Run, the one who quietly witnessed Rodin’s onslaught against the vampires and the army of that weird scientist the demonic blacksmith killed.
As he shot more of his surprisingly sharp wings, Batou and the Metagross took the brunt of the attack after the Section Nine agent brought a flash bang from his utility belt, while three of them grazed through me as I dodged them. He threw it at the injured Jaeger, but not before the latter fired a few more at me. As I dodged the lethal wings, the flash bang detonated; because one of those humanoid robot females were knocked into the vicinity of the flash bang by Stark and Jax, it too was caught alongside Run, blinding them both (the robot wasn’t too badly affected.). With this opening, and with Batou’s help, we both closed in on the Jaegers and delivered a combination of strikes, incapacitating the winged Jaeger in the process.
“That’s one down.” I noted as Guile witnessed what had happened as he battled another of the female machine androids alongside Cammy, Stark, and the Chief Major.
“Charlie, give us a hand and help us take down these robots.” As I was on my way to assist Guile and the others, Lust, looking through the smoke from the flames Colonel Mustang used to burn Envy, began to target me, raising her right arm.
I will enjoy that politician grieving the loss of his captain. Cowardly shrew. Smiling wickedly as I moved to help Guile and the other, she extended her middle and index talons across the lair, launching them at breakneck speed toward me. Several people on the battlefield noticed the talons aiming for me, with Guile, Chun-Li, Ms. Recital, and the Turbulent Wind being the most aware; their eyes widened with horror as the female homunculus’s claws made their way toward me.
“Charlie!!!” I, the target, finally turned to see Lust’s claws. Due to how sudden the result was, I tried my best to move out of the way before the claws made their impact.
“Ack!” Blood was splattered all over. All of my friends, as well as several other people including Majors Elric and Kisaragi (the latter briefly knocked Bradley away from him), in addition to Ahsoka and the Scarred Man, were shocked at the sight before them.
The renowned Jedi warned me about the female homunculus, but to see her in action… A shocked Major Kisaragi (having received cuts to the chest and arms) shifted his attention to the unconscious Anakin before returning his glance to Lust. I never expected her claws to travel as fast as a bullet and reach so far… I take it the ‘Chosen’ Jedi told him about her ahead of time. The shock, however, was worn off by Bradley assaulting him. Ahsoka, who assisted in the fight against the mechanical humanoids, stopped and broke away to see what had happened: I was down on my stomach tumbling on the floor, completely devoid of any stab wounds. Was I tackled by the homunculus who attacked the President when Guile and I were away? No, that would’ve killed me. What an annoyance. I began to pick myself up, angry and prepared to give the assailant a piece of my mind.
“Hey, what the…!” As soon as I turned around, I stopped cold. My gaze was as wide as the others. I now realized why I was pushed into the floor: the person who pushed me to the floor wasn’t an adversary at all; standing upright next to me was a certain man grunting in pain with his left shoulder impaled by Lust’s claws… “Samson!?”
The Murderist Extraordinaire stood his ground as turned his head toward me. “I heard you… guys talking earlier.” The female homunculus suddenly retracted her talons, tearing further into his flesh on the way out. “Oh shit…!” With blood now seeping through his clothes, dropping into the floor, Samson covered his shoulder with his right hand. “You said you were…looking for me…during that freak show at the Hall of Fear, right?” I’m impressed he managed to escape and intercept that so quickly.
Ms. Recital was surprised to hear of this from him. He was conscious enough to listen to all that? There’s no way he learned about us while he was unconscious… No, the president must’ve contacted him and his associates before he got into contact with me. That could be the only explanation. Nevertheless, she filled him in on the reason we came for him originally. “Listen! Those vampires and zombies were the work of these Ouroboros creatures!” She pointed towards the Ouroboros. “They are the enemy we wanted you to help with!” Hearing this, Samson, still holding on to his left shoulder in pain, turned toward her.
“Is that right?” He grunted in pain as he tried to keep himself together. “Sounds like you’re giving me a…mission, lady?”
“And a good team to back you up.” Rashid added, trying to blow away one of the android females before Inspector and Parker knocked away another.
“That’s great news.” More focused than ever despite the grotesque shoulder wound, the Murderist Extraordinaire returned his gaze to the female homunculus, more intense than ever with a grin. “Why don’t we start now!?” I stepped in front of him, looking in his direction.
Initially annoyed, Lust chuckled. “With your death, gladly!” She was about to launch her talons again, this time toward Samson on purpose. Before it could reach him, I moved up to the female homunculus, instantly being in front of her in a matter of seconds before transitioning into a crouching position, surprising her. He was next to the captive a moment ago. How did he get close to me in so little time? Before she could devise a change of plan, I delivered a somersault kick.
“Flash Kick!” Caught from underneath at a precise moment by the razor-wave energy of my somersault kick, her nails extended upward toward the ceiling as she grunted in pain. Taking advantage of this, Ahsoka broke away from the fight against the humanoid females; she leapt into the air and whipped out her lightsaber to snip off the spears before the Female Homunculus could fully retract them. The homunculus let out a brief shriek of pain.
“Nice one!” The Turbulent Wind smiled after he used his wind to distract Bradley, giving Major Kisaragi and the Scarred Man an opening to attack him. The Chosen One’s apprentice landed near him.
“Stay focused. We still have more to contend with.” Ahsoka noted. Rashid smirked, his focus was on exactly that: Gluttony, who lunged at him. He stepped out of the way, only to leap at the fat homunculus with a diving kick to the chest, knocking him away. Landing on the floor, he then performed a sweeping kick that summoned a tornado that moved the Voracious away. He then spread his arms and spun toward Lust, knocking her back as well. As everyone else fought, Samson stood behind me for cover.
“Hey.” He turned his head towards me, still covering his shoulder. “Thanks for watching my six, pal.”
Turning my head back to him, I smiled. “Just returning the favor.” After all the trouble of fighting off those mannequins cyclops, I’m just glad we finally found you, Samson. I guess that makes us even. “And I’m not done yet.”
“Not until the fish jumps, right?” He commented heartily as he grunted in pain. I’m impressed he’s still standing strong despite his wound.
“You’re obviously not a hundred percent right now, but you seem like the type of soldier to insist you can still fight.”
I can see it in his eyes: He’s just as ready as we are to take down the Ouroboros, perhaps more gruesomely than I could ever imagine. Come to think of it, out of all us in the group the President assigned me to gather, he would have the easiest time working with Sears.
I focused on our other enemies, knowing that Lust wasn’t the only one we had to deal with. “You’re going to need someone to cover you.”
“You got any kind of long range moves or firearms on you?” Samson asked me as he looked around the area. I smiled.
“What do you think of a Sonic Boom?” I suggested.
The Murderist Extraordinaire grinned. “Sounds good to me.” We both moved on to help Guile and the others take care of the feminine androids. Ororo joined Chun-Li in fighting Azula, attacking the Fire Nation Princess with a lightning bolt from behind. As Colonel Curtiss, Colonel Mutsuki, and the Jellyfish Pirate captain Johnny fended off the homunculus Pride, everything began to shake.
“What’s going on?” Major General Armstrong stopped as she heard what appeared to be loud steps moving in succession. An earthquake? She, alongside the rest of us, fell on the floor as the footsteps grew louder. Before anyone could comprehend what was going on, the female X-Man looked up at the hole the Saiyan Prince Vegeta made to escape.
“Above us!” We all looked above the hole, seeing what appeared to be a giant woman looking at us through one eye. Bradley, despite this distraction, remained focused.
“Great timing.” The former Fuhrer was in a sword lock with Major Kisaragi.
“It was you who sent the giant here?!” Scarred Man yelled, attacking Bradley from behind with blue sparks on his right arm, only for the latter to dodge him by jumping a great height, landing near Lust to get her up to her feet.
“We’ll need to stay clear of the Female Titan.” He told his sister, who nodded to him in agreement, as did their ‘Father’ who heard them within earshot, gesturing them (plus Dante, Azula, and the female humanoids) ran to their father. Realizing how dire this surprise has gotten, Ms. Recital gritted her teeth in frustration.
The AS Alegrias is outside the lair! She looked at everyone else, and then the exit. Everyone’s going to be in danger by the time I get inside. As everyone drew distance from the giant (with the Elrics’ father leaving the throne room), she quickly gathered around everyone else as the giant woman began to move her right hand. I’ll need to get to my mech fast before that thing crushes everyone. She turned to the Iron Avengers, given their ability to fly using jet anklets in their armor. “Can one of you carry me up to my mech?” The Female Titan’s hand reached the lair (tearing through the structure of the lair in the process), certainly intent on crushing someone.
Rhodes turned to the second Lieutenant. “I’ll do it. Grab on tight.” While she held on the War Machine’s waist as the latter prepared to take flight, the Female Titan’s hand reached the lair. We gave everything we could to hold her off; from standard firearms, to alchemy, to even magic. At worst, it served as a minor inconvenience for the Female Titan. With the smoke covering our field of view, however, Rhodes used this as an opportunity to fly out of the lair and into the skies, taking the giant by surprise. In that exact moment, he fired rockets at her face, distracting her before he traveled to the top of the AS Alegrias. As soon as they reached the cockpit, Ms. Recital used a remote to open it and released her grip from the War Machine, going inside in a rather stylish manner. Upon entering, her robot companion appeared.
“Elma! Help me start up the AS Alegrias!” The robot nodded as she started up the mech, Ms. Recital readying herself to target the Female Titan. Ms. Recital started up the mech. Despite our efforts, the giant managed to get a hold of the Turbulent Wind in her grip, a sight that shocked her. “Rashid! Idiot…” As the blonde began to tighten her grip in an attempt to crush the Arabic warrior, who screamed in pain.
“Someone, help!” Rage consumed the last pilot of the Jelba as she rushed to the female giant, energy daggers emerging mid-way, and cut off the giant’s arm, freeing him from her grasp. Using the jet anklets in his armors, War Machine swooped in and caught the Turbulent Wind, who grunted in pain.
“No way you can still fight after what that giant did to you.” Rhodes briefly observed the injuries before he decided to take him to the medical division. “I can take you back to the-” With a determined face, Rashid interrupted him.
“I can still support everyone if needed.” Seeing this, Rhodes, after a moment, changed his mind and flew back to the homunculus leader’s lair to join the rest of us, while the Arabic warrior watched as Ms. Recital fought the giant in her mech. I really owe you one for saving me, there. Please, don’t die. As Rhodes flew back to the temple with Rashid, the female Titan’s right arm managed to regenerate at such an alarming speed.
Dios mio… it can grow its arm back? A surprised Ms. Recital witnessed everything from the cockpit. Having realized this, she knew she had to put in more effort. I’ll need more extreme measures to deal with this giant. The Female Titan began to run toward the AS Alegrias, preparing for a punch. The Alegrias flew up to evade it. The assault mech wasted no time planning its next strike: “Servant Sluggers, Go! Hit the Titan with all you have!” Two drones were detached from the back of the unit’s thighs, converting into blades that traveled nearly too fast for the Female Titan to comprehend, cutting through her arms. In one moment, however, the Female Titan, in a moment of keen timing, managed to punch one of the drones in the middle of piercing toward her; the force was enough to put a moderate dent on it due to how fast it traveled in minutes, a sight that surprised Ms. Recital. It damaged a Servant. Despite this, the drone was still stable enough to function and overwhelmed the giant with more cuts, this time toward her legs and lower mid-section. The titan groaned in pain as it continued to get hit. As the drones continued their assault, their cut strikes gradually became less deep, a display that confused Ms. Recital, but something the Ouroboros recognized as they, alongside us, watched their fight.
“She’s managed to harden her skin.” Bradley noticed. Envy placed his hand under his chin.
Something seems familiar about that robot, but somehow, I can’t place my finger on it, and it’s really ticking me off. It seems that he’s suspicious of something. In the middle of the battle, Raditz and the Jaeger were nowhere to be seen. On our side, Asami, being an engineer, watched in awe of Ms. Recital’s performance in the mecha.
“She’s really going at it…” The CEO of Future Industries watched as the fight continued.
“Servant Sluggers! Cut off the arms!” The drones of the AS Alegrias converged together, slamming into the Female Titan for a deadly attack. It didn’t fully pierce through the Female Titan’s arms, only somehow leaving more cut wounds. Ignoring the wounds, the Female Titan rushed toward the AS Alegrias at a high speed and grabbed the unit’s right leg with her right arm, surprising her.
“Leg part has been compromised!” Elma informed its human companion. Before Ms. Recital could fully fly away, the giant used the full strength of her right arm to pull the mecha down to ground level. The AS Alegrias was vulnerable to a punch from the giant’s left arm, damaging some components in the mech and knocking it back a few inches, destroying some infrastructure on the House of Otherness in the process. Ms. Recital grunted.
“Time to finish this…” As the Female Titan ran toward the AS Alegrias, the mecha unit unleashed its two beam daggers. As the giant rushed in on her, it stepped aside, taking a grazed jab as a result of not evading the strike fast and early enough. The Mecha impaled the Female Titan through the chest despite the hardened skin, the latter coughing up blood in the process as much as she dropped it. The giant tried to counter Ms. Recital’s offensive with a knee attack. It was partially successful, slowing down her attack pattern. Ms. Recital had another change of tactics: With the beam daggers still active, the AS Alegrias moved around the Female Titan. As this happened, the drones, moving away as they faced each other, converted from blades to gatling guns. “Elma, shoot!” The robot companion rapidly fired bullets at the giant, doing only negligible damage. In spite of this failure, Ms. Recital smirked. “Good. I got you where I want you, monster…” The AS Alegrias struck the Female Titan from all sides, being too fast enough for the giant to catch. Several of the attacks in particular, the giant felt the most pain in her neck, specifically the rear area. Blood dropped everywhere, spilling on several temples of the House of Otherness. Some of the blood spilled near the homunculus leader’s lair. Spectating from below, the Chief Major was impressed by the display the Second Lieutenant showed in this.
Seeing the AS Alegrias in action is… She smiled, signifying a degree of respect for Ms. Recital. Major Zonvolt would’ve been called in to help her in case she struggled, but that won’t be necessary for me. Bartlet assembled a great Strike Force. The President was amazed at how she was able to keep her resolve and shoulder on after everyone in her original Squadron died. Then, in one joint mission we both had with Sears, she showed she can manage to fight decently well out of the mech. Over time, I grew to respect her.
As the gatling gun drones still fired the AS Alegrias joined both arms together, forming a beam sword that vertically sliced the giant in half, from head to toe, destroying the Female Titan. The desecrated body collapsed with more blood spilling around the temple, leaving a loud thud, the last of which disappointed Azula and the former Fuhrer, as the drones were re-attached to the back of the mech’s thighs.
I thought Ms. Leonhart’s strength would be enough to get rid of these pests. The half-homunculus was in a state of subdued fury, as he turned to us as Rhodes flew up again to pick up Selena. His face turned to Sloth. Sloth, you lazy fool. If you didn’t waste time with that President, they wouldn’t be united against us. Do you like fooling yourself, ex-Fuhrer? Considering your sibling’s very name… On second thought, messing with the Ouroboros might not be a bad idea at all.
Ms. Recital exited out of the cockpit, stretching her arms before looking solemnly at the Female Titan’s bisected body. “I’m sorry, but it had to be done… adios.” As she turned to the lair, Rhodes approached her again.
“I take it that’s your cue to leave the fight, Miss Recital?” The War Machine asked the last Jelba pilot.
“No,” Selena responded. “I’m coming back with you to help Nash and Rashid.” As War Machine nodded and began to grab Selena in a bridal carry, the latter turned to her robot companion. “Elma, take the AS Alegrias back to my temple immediately.”
“Yes ma’am!” Now given permission to pilot the mech, the robot companion moved the AS Alegrias away from the House of Otherness while Rhodes flew back to the lair with Ms. Recital with us.
“I didn’t think you’d be able to kill that giant without any help. That was impressive!” Touta commented. Ms. Recital checked on the Turbulent Wind, seeing that he doesn’t walk as nearly well as he used to. He gave her a thumbs up without uttering a word.
During all the commotion, Envy noticed her pink hair. Then he turned to Guile, and Chun-Li, and then lastly, me. His eyes widened with surprise. “It can’t be…!” Now filled with rage, he stepped forward and gave Ms. Recital the pointer finger. “YOU CONNIVING, SHINY LITTLE PINK-HAIRED BITCH!” Ugh, his mouth is as bad as that boxer thug’s.
Knowing that the description fit her, a surprised Selena stopped talking to us and turned to the Jealous homunculus. “Is something wrong, homunculus?”
“Yeah.” He growled. “And that something is you!” Ms. Rectial, as did everyone else, blinked in confusion.
“What are you talking about, tree boy? How is she a threat?” Azula placed the knuckles on her left hand on her hip. What he explained next would shed some clarity for his siblings.
“She was the intruder at the barracks who uncovered all our secrets back when Wrath ascended!” So that’s why he was suspicious about her earlier. It was the secret details regarding their Fuhrer-President’s ascension. The full-form clones created by Dr. Gero, the soul fragments provided by Xehanort, and that other evil creature’s magic animating them all for the half-homunculus to use as a glorified exhibition. “Forelock was helping you get in the building while his friends were playing decoy the whole time! That’s why he joined them late and immediately pulled them out!” At first, Ms. Recital remained confused; a few seconds later, she smirked.
“Did it really take you this long to figure that out?” She chuckled as she continued mocking him. “Your intelligence must be so vast.” The pine-tree punk scowled, taking offense to his intelligence being insulted.
“What was that!?” As he barely contained his anger, Ms. Recital continued to taunt him.
“You heard me. I guess that homunculus brain of yours could use some modifications.” Envy wasn’t the only one who was enraged by their secrets being revealed; Lust, alongside Pride and Bradley, were now rightly infuriated as well to varying degrees. Ms. Recital resumed. “Those captured deities in your brother’s temple? We know about them too. We told those rodents to travel to the Fuhrer’s barracks to find the captives undetected. Yes, we know, you plan on moving them. We have a good idea where to. They’ll be free soon enough, you don’t need to worry your innocent little head about that.” Several people on our side, one of them being Major Briggs, chuckled quietly.
“They seem to be falling for it.” Colonel Curtiss muttered under his breath. While the other homunculi didn’t seem to pay it any mind, Bradley, however, saw through it. Before he could rein Envy in, the latter exploded with a threat.
“I’ll make your superiors suffer for exposing us, you sneaky little rat!” I was now serious; I stepped forward in front of the Second Lieutenant, protecting her from the inevitable threat.
“Hmph. As if I would ever let that happen.” As I got into a fighting stance knowing what would happen next, I briefly turned my head to Colonel Mustang before returning my gaze back to the petty homunculus. “I know what you did to the last guy!”
Envy scoffed at this, given that news in the Pantheon spread quickly. “Everyone knows what I did to Hughes, dumbass!” A grave mistake. The Flame Alchemist got ahead of us, now enraged and offended at his friend’s murderer.
“You should’ve shut your mouth!” Snapping his fingers in his flame alchemy gloves, he once again burned the jealous homunculus, who screamed in agony in his crispy state. The homunculus leader sighed in exasperation.
It seems we need to train him a little more on his reflexes…and his impulse control. As the smoke began to spread again, Lust used this moment as an opening to use her tendons to stab the Colonel in the left eye, catching everyone off-guard.
“Colonel!” The Elrics, Lieutenant Hawkeye, the Armstrongs, his fellow Colonels, and the Armored Avengers all watched in horror as Lust retracted her claws.
“Bad oversight? I’m sorry you weren’t paying attention.” Lust muttered bitterly as her claws returned to her normal length. Seeing this, Pride chuckled.
“Good. Now that the Flame Alchemist has been denied one eye, the others should be easy pickings.” The pine-tree haired punk was elated to hear such a thing. Stark rushed to get Mustang out of the battlefield, but the latter protested.
“No, Tony, I can still fight. Lieutenant, come to my aid!”
“Sir!” Sternly nodding, Lieutenant Hawkeye rushed to his aid to guide him like she did in their previous fight against these monsters in their own home world. First Samson, and now Colonel Mustang. I admire their tenacity to fight despite their stab wounds. Either way, the fight began anew: However, two things remained consistent; Bradley once again targeted Major Kisaragi, who was aided by the Scarred Man, and the Inspector engaged Azula in a fight. Dante, however, did not directly participate due to Edward and Mrs. Curtis beating her enough to impair her movement. The biggest problem now is a plan to escape this vile place.
Magical Comeback
As told Tony Stark
The smoke spread after the female homunculus stabbed out Colonel Mustang’s left eye, almost right after Selena Recital took out a giant. The giant fight against these Ouro-crooks is looking to be grim; this time, the Elrics, Brock Samson, Rashid, Colonel Mustang, and Lieutenant Hawkeye, and Rashid were fighting Envy and Gluttony since Dante stayed with Homunculus; Jedi Apprentice Ahsoka Tano, Guile, and Nash (aided from a distance by Selena) contended with Lust; the Armstrong siblings (with help from The Elric’s teacher, Major Briggs, and that kid Touta) scuffled with the muscular Sloth; Chun-Li (still in a Power Ranger uniform, now assisted by Mako and Bolin), Azula; Cammy, Ororo, Batou, Rhodey, the Chief Major, Parker, and I battled those female humanoids; Colonel Mutsuki, Colonel Curtiss, and that Jellyfish pirate captain, Johnny, fought Pride; lastly, Major Jin Kisaragi, assisted by Major Sakamoto and the Scarred Man is still in the middle of fighting King Bradley again. The false Hero of Ikaruga clashed with the leader of High Command, parrying blows in the process. Since the former Fuhrer has two swords, Jin suffered several cuts wounds from his arms to his chest, moreso the latter as did the Fuhrer to a lesser extent. Unknown to his opponent, red sparks surrounded the wounds, undoing the damage done by the Hero of Ikaruga, an ability he previously lacked before the ritual’s completion due to him being a half-homunculus. Damn it, we’re in deep trouble if he’s regenerating. The blonde swordsman jumped backwards away from Bradley, to draw some distance.
“You seem to go for me often.” The Hero of Ikaruga commented, going into a defensive stance, looking at the Fuhrer’s eyes. “Does it have to do with me dealing with your other associate?”
Though the ex-Fuhrer had a furious look on his face, he remained calm despite knowing Jin was referring to Esdeath. “Sorry, but looking at your clothes, you remind me of a certain pest I’d dealt with earlier.” He noticed the Hero of Ikaruga partly lightly encasing himself in armor (from his upper body, up to his hands) made of ice on top of his clothes. Has he emulated the ice armor from Esdeath? As he watched, he remained focused with a mirthless smirk on his face. “I will admit, you’re more challenging than the last ice person I neutralized.” As the two of them prepared their duel again (with Major Sakamoto and Scar backing him up), Sloth managed to give his adversaries a somewhat more difficult time, as even the strongest punches from Majors Briggs and Armstrong only seemed to slow him down. Touta, however, had a sword that somehow changed its weight, throwing it at Sloth’s head. The hilt stabbed through the Indolent’s forehead, the force of which made him walk a few steps backwards, leaning back shortly afterward. The boy vampire jumped toward Sloth, landing on his chest to run the sword through his forehead before jumping off of him, leaving him immobile for a few minutes. Armstrong, Jax, and Mrs. Curtis took the chance to lay a few haymakers on the homunculus before the regeneration kicked in; at that point he moved around and knocked them away from him. Lust, however, struggled against her opponents, underestimating how fast Nash moved in short bursts; the Air Force Captain managed to move Guile to safety before the claws hit him, while Cammy dodged the claws at precisely the right moment, leaving Selena to fire on her head, causing the female homunculus to lift her hands upwards in pain.. This gave Ahsoka the perfect opening she needed to get behind the Lascivious to cut off her arms with her lightsaber.
Meanwhile, the Elric brothers, Samson, and Rashid only struggled moderately as Envy dodged some hits from the former three and overwhelmed Edward and Alphonse, only for the Murderist Extraordinaire to just grab him by the throat, strangling him as hard as he could.
“Not so elusive now, huh, tree-man?” With all his strength, he slammed the homunculus into the ground, and then threw him high enough for Mustang to attack the petty homunculus with his Flame Alchemy, burning him once more. The Turbulent Wind, despite his injuries, seems to be doing a decent job against Gluttony, evading his attacks before Alphonse stepped in and transmuted a wall to block him. As the fight continued, several explosions suddenly emerged distracting everyone, likely as a result of Mustang’s flame burning Envy in the air. Another setback for them. As rubble began to fall on the throne room, what appeared to be a loud stab was heard from across the room. Colonel Curtiss was the first to realize what happened amidst the smoke: Colonel Mutsuki and Jellyfish pirate captain Johnny, who were stabbed in the chest and abdomen by shadows.
“Colonel Mutsuki…!” Colonel Mustang, Major Kisaragi, Asami, and Cyrax looked on as the shadows tore further into the hole as it exited out of their bodies, leaving them lifeless. The perpetrator Pride, chuckled sadistically.
“One Colonel down…” He approached the bespectacled Colonel. “Two more to go.” The arrogant homunculus slowly walked toward the mage Colonel, sending his shadows to stab him next. That attempt was thankfully averted by the Ferret Brothers using their bending to attack Pride, likely helping Chun-Li defeat Azula (Bolin earth-bended the floor, shooting solid concrete to attack Pride directly; Mako shot red flames to dispel the shadows). This allowed Colonel Curtiss to escape from Pride. The seven of us had the upper hand against the female humanoids, two of them being weakened by heavy injuries. Although we suffered a few injuries, their weaponry paled in comparison to me and Rhodey’s. With this in mind, the Chief Major threw several flash bangs around the area, blinding several homunculi (Envy, Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth), while Internet Explorer’s Metagross tried to blindside Bradley with a Meteor Mash, only for the Fuhrer to dodge. Either way, this gave everyone else time to break away from their opponents to reach the throne room entrance as more rubble continued to collapse, grabbing the three captives with them. As everyone ran away, Bradley chased the rest of us, Cyrax went to the side and fired an energy net on the High Command leader, trapping him, giving everyone else enough to successfully leave the room as the Elrics and their teacher clapped their hands, using their alchemy to create several walls as layers to block the Ouro-crooks from getting close to us.
“Everyone, get behind us!” Edward commanded everyone as myself, Rhodey, and Major Sakamoto went their side, flying around the; as Major Sakamoto fired bullets at the homunculi with an assault rifle, Rhodey fired missiles everywhere in an attempt to knock them out of balance, while I fired my unibeam directly at the Homunculus leader and Dante, only for the former to block it with a forcefield. Since he wants to be stubborn, I fired energy beams from the hand parts of my armor, straining the forcefield further. As the other homunculi recovered from the flash bangs, Lust looked up toward me, and then the walls, infuriated that we’ve managed to outsmart them yet again.
“You won’t get away from us this time!” From the pockets in her dress, she took out a Pokeball and threw, summoning a feminine, human-like insect. One of the Ultra Beasts. Things aren’t looking good for us again. Seeing this insect humanoid, Major Sakamoto returned to the Chief Major.
“Chief Major, we have a problem!” Chief Major Kusanagi, alongside everyone close to them, listened. “The homunculus summoned a strong Pokemon on their side, so we’ll need more assistance from the others.” The Chief Major turned to everyone amongst them. Greed, who’s dissolved into a red liquid before our very eyes, is inactive, having been somehow deprived of his souls, leaving him unable to participate. The next two people who caught her attention were Colonel Curtiss and Touta.
“Colonel Curtiss,” The bespectacled mage turned to her. “Go into another room and overcharge that kid with electricity!” He nodded as she continued on with her plan, right until the walls were hit. “Some of us will need to help Major Sakamoto and the Iron Avengers.” The group looked at each other, deciding on what to do next. Meanwhile, the Elrics’ father, Hohenheim, was in another room, separate from us, still writing on the transmutation circle to counter the homunculus leader’s. Having overheard everything from the hallway, he stopped for a moment to look at Colonel Curtiss and Touta going into one of the rooms before he resumed drawing.
I’m glad the others are protecting my sons, but I feel bad for whatever happened to Colonel Mustang. He looked around at the earthquake. I’m nearly complete. I don’t know how much longer I can write until the rubble reaches these small rooms. No matter, I can still draw once I get to my temple.
…
In the House of Otherness, a certain sorcerer arrived (next to the two airships from Future Industries), floating on top of the skies as he looked at the blood-drenched lair slowly collapsing, something that didn’t surprise him by too much, but he noticed a hole on top of the lair. Did Stark blast a hole in the lair as usual? If there weren’t captives inside, I would’ve gladly nuked the lair if I wanted. Either way, I need to reserve that power for more powerful threats. Nevertheless, the sorcerer witnessed the source of the blood: The Female Titan, who seemingly came out of nowhere and tried to crush us all. The sight of her body sliced in half disturbed him, but he quickly worked out the circumstances surrounding her. High Command enlisted the Female Titan in their ranks. At least she won’t be in commission for some time. He returned his attention to the lair, noticing something different about the transmutation circle in the sky. The dots are blackening…? He looked further into the dots wondering what happened. The Homunculus made a misstep in his alchemy ritual? But he managed to collect the souls. It might not be however you’re seeing it in your mind, but it’s still right on the mark. Using his golden eye-shaped necklace, a green glow created a projection of our fight against the Ouroboros. Beside the humanoid Ultra Beast trying to knock down the wall the Elrics created to protect everyone else (the Scarred Man included), the one thing he noticed in the projection was Greed being dissolved into a liquid Philosopher’s Stone. “I must make haste immediately.” Before planning to rescue us, he used the necklace again to see another transmutation circle; it was similar to the homunculus leader’s, having seven dots as well, but it was flipped. Is this one the work of the Ishvalan? Either way, I can project it into the sky and use some magic to reverse the process, then find some way to get the traitor homunculus in a vial. Remembering the circle in his mind, he took out a magical book, chanted something to project it into the sky, and brought out a magical artifact to assist him in his task. With everything that happened, I’m relieved you showed up at the right time, Sorcerer Supreme. Finally, our exit bus arrived.
Corrupt, Unstable Rebound
As told by Edward Elric
As more rubble continued to fall, the feminine Ultra Beast destroyed two walls me, Al, and Teach created. We want to leave, but any of us let up at any moment, those Ouroboros would certainly chase us and kill several more people on our side. Colonel Mustang lost an eye, and Colonel Mutsuki and that pirate captain are dead. They might be after Greed; we’re not letting that happen this time, especially when his ‘children’ are around. They are hell-bent on killing us after thwarting their Great Philosopher’s Stone Ritual. Seeing as they won’t relent, Chun-Li and Ahsoka decided to intervene, approaching us closely.
“Let us through.” The Inspector quietly suggested. The three of us briefly stopped our transmutation as we let them jump over the walls and defend the rest of us from the Ultra Beast, helping Major Sakamoto and the Iron Avengers distract the homunculi. Interrupting the Ultra Beast’s attempt to break down the wall, Chun-Li led the attack. As the two of them began to parry blows, Azula appeared and fought the Jedi apprentice. The Fire Nation Princess nearly landed a front kick to Ahsoka’s chest, only for the apprentice to catch it with her hand. Azula, however, pulled her kick and jumped away. As this happened, Bradley targeted Chun-Li. As she was fighting the light-colored Ultra Beast, she noticed the former Fuhrer approaching her with his swords, trying to cut off her arms. The Interpol officer narrowly dodged several stabs from Bradley before he delivered a kick that knocked her away to the right side, following with five more slashes that damaged her, cutting her ranger uniform. Using this as an opening, Ahsoka extended her hand, telekinetically lifting the bug Pokemon before it noticed and threw it to Gluttony. As the bug Pokemon was distracted, a frustrated Lust turned to Sloth.
“Don’t just stand there, idiot. Tear down that wall!” At her sister’s instruction, the Indolent homunculus charged through the wall. As we heard and felt the heavy footsteps, we got out of the way and ran into one of the rooms before he busted down the remaining walls. Parker stepped in and stopped Sloth in his tracks. His feet slightly dug in on the floor as he’s in a grapple lock with him.
“Guys, I could use some help here.” Spider-Man tried to push back, but Sloth seemed stronger than before. Majors Armstrong and Briggs stepped in and helped the webslinger; from the ground, Armstrong transmuted spikes from several corners at almost a precise angle that managed to stab Sloth’s pecs, slightly holding him in place. As Jax helped Parker lift up the Indolent’s body, the Major whips out that particular Poke-ball to summon the muscular Ultra Beast that volunteered to be his partner.
“Go! Assist me against this monster!” The Muscular Ultra Beast nodded as they helped Jax and Parker with Sloth; together, they moved the homunculus into the throne room and jumped into the air, holding the Indolent in place for a four-man piledriver, a sight that baffled everyone.
“T-they’re actually going to go through with this?” Pride had an indignant look of disbelief on his face, while the four careened towards the ground applying all the force they could. Driving the gigantic homunculus headfirst into the hard concrete, they impacted the floor so hard that a minor shockwave reverberated around the area. Tony, Rhodes, and Major Sakamoto flew back to our side, not wanting to breathe in the dirt and having knocked down the female humanoids in the process. Moments later as the dust cleared, a crater was formed around the Indolent’s body. The homunculus himself had his head sunken deep into the floor, followed by more rubble falling on top of him. That’s one homunculus out of commission. Major Armstrong recalled the Ultra Beast back into its Pokeball before he, Jax, and Parker returned to us. As Pride and Envy prepared to chase them, the latter suddenly felt his feet getting cold.
“My feet are so cold…” Envy hopped around as he shivered. “W-what’s going on?” He turned to Azula and Bradley as they fought Ahsoka and Chun-Li respectively, witnessing their movements being slowed down. Azula realized what this meant.
“The man Esdeath fought… He’s doing all this!” The Fire Nation Princess looked to notice Ice Jerk; the ‘Hero of Ikaruga’ stabbed his blade deep into the floor. In a matter of seconds, Gluttony was the first to be frozen, followed by Sloth. Envy tried to resist and go back to his ‘father’, but was slowly frozen solid. Lust and Pride managed to escape to Dante and Homunculus, with Azula using her fire-bending around the area to quickly thaw out the three Homunculi. As she and Bradley continued their offensive, a loud thunderstorm was heard from across the room. Two minutes later, everyone on our side cleared the way as Touta, now encased in the same state that managed to harm Raditz before me, Al, Teach, Ice Jerk, and his brother arrived, moved extremely fast to the point it electrocuted the former Fuhrer and singed his clothing before the latter could even react, making the half-homunculus drop to his knees. His next target was Azula, whom he grabbed and electrocuted. From the hallway, Asami, who expressed frustration in her inability to find Korra, smiled in satisfaction over the sight of the Fire Nation Princess, an associate of Bradley’s High Command, being beaten to a pulp.
This is the best thing I’ve seen in over a week. The engineer took a deep breath as she watched the vampire boy go for Homunculus; the elder homunculus generated a forcefield again. Even though it was strained from Stark’s laser beam earlier, it still had enough power to keep Touta at bay.
As this happened, Mustang burned Lust in retaliation for what she did to him.
“Surrender Greed to me! He is not of your own kind!” Homunculus bellowed with rage as he clashed with the Seventh UQ Holder. “He will always belong to me, no matter what!”
“I’m not human either, old man, but that’s not the point!” Touta countered. “Everyone gets to make choices, and he chose to get away from you creeps not once, but twice!!” As the UQ Holder tried to break the barrier for a few moments, Homunculus suddenly felt a heavy pain in his chest, causing him to prematurely dispel the barrier by force, giving Touta a chance to tackle him and move back to our spot. As he reverted to normal, the other homunculi started to place their hands on their chests in pain as well.
“What’s happening to you, Homunculus?” Dante looked around at the homunculi horrified before rushing to the aid of her contemporary. “The Great Philosopher’s Stone worked!” Confused, Dante looked at the other homunculi, wondering what the hell was going on before she turned to us with a gaze of hatred. “Did Hohenheim perform some kind of alchemy to reverse this?” I stepped in first to explain.
“We had no idea what your transmutation circle was before we came here! Bastard should’ve thought twice about picking that Saiyan prince as a sacrifice!” I exclaimed. Homunculus recovered poorly at the moment, and before he could hazard a guess as to why he and his children were feeling pain in their chests, more rubble continued to collapse and two men appeared next to Major Briggs. One was a water bender we recognized as a member of Republic City’s police, something that relieved Beifong greatly. The other was a man in a blue robe, black pants, black boots with blue strips around the boots. On top of the robes was a red collared cape. He’s one of the guardians of the House of Magic.
“Doctor…!” Scar exclaimed, sighing with relief. “You’re here…”
“I gotta say,” Tony quietly smiled as he looked at the other man. “You picked a hell of a time to come through, Strange.” The rest of us watched as Beifong commanded the water bender to accumulate all of the liquid consisting of Greed’s Philosopher Stone, transferring it into a vial, infuriating the rest of the homunculi. The other man, Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, summoned a portal.
“This portal will send you to the entrance of this lair!” He informed us. “Go quickly while you can!” We rushed to the portal, leaving the underground area of the lair as it continued to collapse. Furious at us leaving the place, Lust rushed to pursue us, extending her claws.
“Not if I can do anything about it!” As the Lascivious chased us, Strange summoned another portal in front of her, with another one appearing behind her, particularly lined up to her abdomen, the sight of which gravely alerted her ‘family.’
“Lust, don’t do it!” Bradley’s warning to his sister fell on deaf ears as she extended her tendons through the portal… only to find herself in immense pain.
W…what…? Blood ran through her mouth as she lowered her head, seeing her own claws digging through her own body. She used the remainder of her strength retracting her claws before collapsing. The portals between her were closed. Noticing Colonel Mutsuki and Johnny’s dead bodies, he chanted a magical spell to teleport them out of the lair. As the Ouroboros weren’t in a good condition against the Sorcerer Supreme, he turned around, facing the portal to leave this place, with him and Hohenheim being the last ones to enter.
“Damn them…!” Bradley’s ‘siblings’, alongside Azula and the Humanoids, watched as the half-homunculus shook as he almost lost his composure over our escape. A moment later, however, he quickly calmed down. We have what we wanted. I’ll deal with them later. For now… Remembering something, he turned to his ‘father.’ “Father, we have what we wanted. I will be having a meeting… with that man again.” The Homunculus leader nodded before panging in pain again.
“Y..yes. We have completed the Great Philosopher’s Stone…” He grunted as he continued to speak. “Go and… Rest, for now.”
Looking at the lair in ruins, Azula rolled her eyes. “Soooo, you guys are okay sleeping with all this rubble suffocating you?” Bradley turned to her, remaining straight-faced.
“Not to worry. I’ll make a… few arrangements.” Grunting in pain, Bradley took out his cellphone and made a call to someone. As Envy, Gluttony, and Pride tried to pull Sloth up from the floor, Dante watched in horror as she saw faint black sparks appear on their chests. She then looked up at the sky, watching us leave the lair with the transportation we used to arrive there.
END Part 2
Trope Pantheon Stories 