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scriveynerTitle: Untitled Nano 2008 - 13
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist, Supernatural
AU: Mashup
Characters/Pairing: Ed, Al
Rating: T
Length: 3288
Summary:
Their stop was not at Conte's residence, which Ed found interesting. They drove out of town completely, heading through to the next town, gliding through the business district as if they belonged there. Al was noting the way they came carefully, which Ed realized and Marta realized as well, relaying more soft instructions to their driver.
After a long, pointless drive that made use of far too many turns and loops and double-backs - not fool-proof as Al was damn good at figuring out where they were - the car finally pulled into one of the many warehouses that bordered the business district as it rolled over into the industrial side of town.
It was much darker inside than outside, even with the heavy gray cloud-cover and threat of snow. After the car had been silent for a moment, Marta turned to look at them. "Get out, both of you."
Ed and Al exchanged looks, but got out of the car. As soon as they had closed the doors, the driver started the vehicle again. Marta rolled down her window. "If you live through this, Conte will take you on as his students," she said. With no further explanation, the car was slammed into reverse and literally burned rubber as it backed out of the warehouse.
"If we /survive/ this?" Al said as the door they entered through slid to a close behind them.
Ed glanced around. "I've got a /bad/ feeling about this, Al."
"You're not the only one," Al murmured, grateful that they at least remembered to come with weapons. Both brothers scanned the dim warehouse, trying to figure out what precisely was going on here.
There were tables lined up in rows, and further than that, entire aisles of shelves. Some still held boxes. There was litter on the floor, and when Ed wasn't looking where he was stepping, he stepped on a rat.
Neither had pulled their weapons yet. "We're probably being watched from somewhere," Al said. His eyes were scanning the roof, high over their heads. Murky light filtered from ancient, filmed-over skylights. "I don't like this," he said.
"What sort of test do you think this is?" Ed said.
"Well, given the whole /survive/ parting line," Al gritted. "I don't know why I let you drag me in to these things, I really don't...
Something swooped out of the darkness above them. Al ducked out of habit, but whatever it was didn't get anywhere near him. "Bats?"
Al pushed some trash aside with his foot. "I don't think so, there really isn't any sort of guano..."
Ed wished dearly for a flashlight. He could see something swooping up in the rafters. "It's too big to be a bat," he said, trying to focus on it.
For the time being, it didn't seem interested in either of them, so they moved past the long metal tables. Closer to the tables there were hangers all about, Ed stepped on a plastic hanger and it broke, the cracking noise shooting out into the darkness of the warehouse.
Al stopped at glared at him.
"I'm sorry," Ed said sarcastically. "I wasn't aware that we were trying to be stealthy."
Al drew his gun - the regular one, not the Colt. Ed nodded at him but didn't draw his own, he wasn't very accurate or good with it with the cast on.
They moved professionally into the racks that lined the warehouse the deeper the moved into it. Al stopped suddenly and Ed, a few feet to the other side, up a different aisle, paused as well, glancing at him.
"Did you hear that?"
Ed nodded, shooting his brother a look. There was something ahead of them, but what there was no telling. It sounded big, and it was moving. Ed moved hesitantly forward, listening to the heavy footfalls. "What do you think it is?"
"Something big," Al responded. "And there's either two of them, or one on four feet."
Their eyes had adjusted to the gloom well, but it was still nearly impossible to make out the moving shape in the murky darkness ahead of them. "What the hell do you think it is?"
"I couldn't tell you, Ed," Al gritted out, the grip on his gun tight. "We need to find it and deal with it."
Ed made an affirmative noise. The litter that was strewn across the ground had gradually changed. Paper still, some plastic bags, others were scraps of fabric. Ed turned down another aisle, still keeping Al in his peripheral vision, and kicked something when he wasn't looking down. The clatter caught his attention, and Ed's stomach dropped.
"Al," he called. "I found bones."
Al came back the way he had gone, doubling around to head in Ed's direction. "Animal?" he called back as he got closer.
Ed crouched, pulling the one he'd kicked out from under the metal racks. He almost wished he hadn't. "No, definitely human. It's a femur." It was cracked partially open, and Ed's fingers paused. "These are tooth marks."
He looked up as Al entered the aisle. "I think I've found our first problem with the professor," he said grimly, getting to his feet.
Somewhere in the dark before them, there was a distinct growling that had started. Ed glanced down into the darkness, then over at Al before pulling his own weapon from the back of his pants, flicking the safety off. "Let's kill this fucking thing," he said.
As they progressed further down the aisle, more bones became evident. It was obvious that it was the outer circle of some kind of nest, and the bones the furthest out had to be the oldest. The brothers moved stealthily now, no words between them but glances and signals. They worked as a team, splitting down two aisles, alertly scanning for their prey. Whatever the predator was that they were stalking, they would be prepared for it.
Ed started up a new aisle - the deeper into the warehouse they got, the fewer boxes lined the metal racks. He hesitated, the heavy footsteps they had continually heard had all but ceased. He didn't like it.
Something was wrong here, the quality of the air was changing. It smelled fetid, almost like rancid meat.
The gentle creaking of the metal rack was all that alerted him. Ed glanced up at the rocking rack and saw the eyes, a moment before the creature leaped at him.
Ed leveled his gun at the creature, right between the eyes, and shot. So much for the cast destroying his aim, he saw the bullet hit the creature seconds before it hit him. Ed was slammed to the ground by the bulk of it, he didn't have time to make even a noise as he hit the concrete with enough force to break ribs. The creature didn't move again.
Al heard the commotion and came running, saw Ed under the now-dead beast and started prying his older brother out from under the beast. It took Ed kicking as hard as he could and Al's entire body weight to roll the beast.
Ed didn't look so good but he stood up shakily. "What the - /hell/ is that?"
It looked like a hybrid of a lion and an alligator. Giant golden paws and haunches framed a reptilian torso. The head was ghastly. "It's a chimera," Al said, in shock. Ed leaned against the metal rack for a moment, trying to suck air into his bruised lungs.
"Fuck if I know what that is," he groaned. "I think I cracked a rib."
Immediately there were more of the pawsteps.
"There's MORE of them?" Ed said in disbelief.
"At least we know bullets work on them," Al said grimly.
"The fuckers can jump," Ed said. "We need this out in the open to fight them, otherwise we might not see them coming."
"Yeah," Al said, kicking the metal rack and having the noise reverberate throughout the entire warehouse. "What do you suggest?"
Before Ed could open his mouth, he noticed the wan light winking off of the wide-set eyes from several chimera at the far end of the aisle. The one in the fore led, its mouth open menacingly.
Al shot it through one eye. "I'm open to ideas," he said evenly.
"Fuck, how do things like this even exist," Ed said, picking one off of the racks above them. "I'm beginning to not be a fan of alchemy."
"Famous last words," Al said.
Ed inclined his head backwards. "It might be wise to, you know, retreat."
"I'm inclined to agree," Al said, ducking backwards and heading the way they came. Ed winced as he ran after Al, it hurt to move but now was not the time to lick injuries. Ed noticed the swooping predator a few seconds before it struck. "Al, watch out!"
Al glanced back at him and saw the shadow a split second before it hit him. He hit the ground hard, curving talons slicing into his shoulder. Ed tried to get a bead on the beast - it looked like a goddamn huge parrot - and it turned, opening its wings and beak and launching itself toward him.
He ducked, sliding on the crap that littered the floor and barely missed being scalped by the razor-sharp talons. He could feel his hair flutter as they passed. "Al!"
Al was up on one knee, shooting at the bird with one hand clamped over his shoulder.
"What the - what the goddamn hell," Al panted, staunching the flow of blood with his hand. "No wonder she said "if."
"I wonder how many hapless "recruits" have come here only to be fed to these monsters," Ed said. He helped Al to his feet, wincing even as he did so.
"Would explain a lot, no missing persons reports locally." Al huffed as they moved out of the metal racks quickly. Ed turned to shoot at the pursuing chimera and swore hard, he was out of bullets.
He shoved Al forward a few steps, clapping his hands together awkwardly and putting them flat on the metal table next to them. Al went to ask him what he was doing and Ed drew the metal toward him. Al watched in surprise as Ed crafted a simple sword from the table. "It's crap," he breathed, gripping it one-handed, "but it doesn't run out of ammo."
"Do you think we can kill them all?" Al asked.
"Doubt it," Ed said. "We need to get out of here. Any ideas?"
Al reached out above Ed's head and he ducked as Al shot at the flying chimera. "I don't see anything," Al said grimly. Ed nodded, pointing the sword in the direction of the large, scaling chimera - who now moving out in the open looked like they were moving a whole lot faster than he originally thought.
They were swarming around them, not getting close but there had to be at least fifteen of them. "This isn't going to end well," Al said.
"Don't stop," Ed said. "Get out from where the tables are, we've got to keep moving."
They ran. The bird chimera buzzed them again but Ed hit it, it went spiraling somewhere before recovering mid-air and flapping elsewhere, shrieking in rage.
Ed slid on a piece of litter and fell, twisting and hitting the ground hard as he did so.
"Ed!" Al had gotten several strides away. Before he could turn to retrieve Ed, Ed had a revelation. He sprung to his feet, putting arms to use levering himself up and ignoring the pain as adrenaline pumped through his system. "Ed?" Al hesitated as Ed ran straight toward the chimera, screaming wildly, waving the sword now clenched tight in both hands.
The chimera were startled and scattered slightly, clearly not expecting the kamikaze attack. Ed dropped the sword, slammed both hands together and dropped, putting them down on the paper that was everywhere.
Al got no warning. One moment there was nothing and the next the papers in Ed's immediate vicinity went up in flames. Paper burned quickly, but there was so much of it it spread across the floor fast.
The chimera made some kind of high-pitched distress noise - this particular piece of prey was far more trouble than the others that had come willingly into its den. They backed off, milling in confusion as the fire spread. Al kicked paper aware from where he was at, and Ed staggered back in his direction, watching the ceiling warily. "Either that was an actual test," Ed said, "or they just tried to kill us."
"Either way," Al winced as he took his hand away from his shoulder wound, "I think we're more than justified in putting a stop to Conte's activities now."
Ed nodded toward the retreating creatures as the flames licked higher. "I don't even know how he put together something like that." His eyes were dark. "If that's all that people are going to use alchemy for, well." He looked down at his cast, now soot-black and covered in a grimy film from the last few days. "I think they're going to have a very unpleasant conversation with my fist real soon."
Al sighed, jerking his head toward the exit. "Let's get the hell out of here, we have to figure out a way to get back to Mountain Grove and get our crap; the motel is compromised now anyway.
It only took a few moments for Ed to alchemize an exit from the warehouse, which he closed after they exited. The cold November air bit at them both, and the heavy skies were complaining now, soft particles of snow falling from the heavens.
Ed stared up at the sky as they stood on the sidewalk, trying to figure out how to get back. Very calmly, Ed said "I'm going to break Conte's neck."
Al looked at Ed in surprise, then had to reach out to catch the bulk of Ed's weight as he passed out. Al bore his weight down so he was crouched on the sidewalk, and he nearly panicked. Ed's face in the daylight was a shade of ashen gray, smudged with smoke. "Ed!"
#
Ed woke in a hospital bed. The first thing he recognized was the crisp smell of antibiotics and that's what made him open his eyes. He looked around in confusion, a hospital? Where was Al, what had happened? He looked at his right arm in confusion and saw that the cast had been cut off and the arm was wrapped, but not with a new cast.
He was trying to get out of the bed, IV be damned, when Al opened the door to the room. "Ed!" He closed the door quickly behind him.
Ed glowered at him, Al's face was dirty and his hair matted, and he was stripped down to his tee shirt, where Ed could see clean white bandages under the tears across the shoulder. "What the hell happened?" he croaked.
"You passed out," Al said, dragging the chair from the corner over to the side of Ed's bed. "The doctor said your overextended yourself, then he cut the ruins of your cast off. He thought the cast was a whole lot older than just a few days." He glowered right back at Ed. "He said the break was mostly healed."
Ed looked down at his wrapped arm in confusion. "What? Doesn't it take broken arms weeks to heal?"
"Yeah," Al said. "Usually." He took a sip of his coffee and regretted it, then returned to using it to warm his hands. "You've got a couple of bruised ribs, but they're not broken. Aside from that, and your mysteriously-healing-arm, the doctor said you're fit."
Ed glared at the room around him. "Then we need to get the hell out of here," he said. "And go put a stop to Conte's so-very-fun-activities."
Al nodded, glancing down at the coffee cup. "The warehouse burned down," he said. "And was taken care of by the government."
"We heard from the asshole alchemist yet?" Ed tore the IV out of his arm and Al winced.
"Ed, what the hell are you-"
"I'm getting out of here, that's what." He looked down at the hospital gown. "Fuck, do you know where my pants are?"
Al sighed. "They're being washed by the nurses. You have to wait at least until your clothes are clean - although the doctors probably won't be too keen on you checking yourself out, I think they wanted to keep you for observation."
"They can observe me mooning their goddamn selves if I don't get my pants," Ed said. "Have we heard from Conte, or haven't we?"
"We have," Al said. "We're invited to a, a. Get this, a gala being thrown in his honor in the middle of town."
"A gala," Ed said.
"Yup."
"A /gala./"
"Yes."
"Did he use those exact words?"
"His lackey did, yes. They said it was black tie."
"Let me get this straight. We're going to a black-tie gala being held in the honor of an insane alchemist who has been feeding people to a horde of chimeras in order to curry his favor so we can get close enough to gank him per the orders of an angel we're not even entirely sure that we trust."
"You've got it pretty much summed up, yeah."
Ed cocked his head thoughtfully. "Have I ever mentioned how strange our lives are?"
"Clearly, not enough."
#
Al was right, the doctor was Not Keen on the idea of Ed checking himself out, but more powerful people than a single doctor had tried to stop him from doing what he wanted. He instead tightly wrapped Ed's arm and had him put it in a sling, warned him that it wasn't fully healed yet and he should probably put a cast on it again just to keep it safe, but Ed waved that off.
The moment they were in the taxi back to Mountain Grove Ed was unwinding the bandage on his right arm. Al rolled his eyes as Ed stretched both arms over his head. "Ahh," he said. "Feels so good to be out of the cast."
"Nothing too strenuous," Al cautioned him, but Ed shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest, nodding off for the remainder of the ride back to their hotel.
Information about the gala was waiting for them at the office, where Al headed to pay another few nights. There were also two tuxes in Ed and Al's sizes waiting for them.
"Okay that?" Ed said as Al came back to the room with the suits. "That is incredibly creepy, how'd they get our sizes?"
"This entire thing is moving quickly into the realm of bizarre," Al said. "Killing chimera and now attending galas, I don't even know where to go with this."
Ed flopped on the bed, finding the remote and flipping on the tv. "No point to worrying about it now," he said. "Might as well let things just roll along at the rate they're going. We're getting closer to Conte - and we're getting closer to figuring out what he's up to, clearly this is cause for a nap."
Al opened his mouth, but Ed had already closed his eyes.
"A nap," Al said. He watched Ed snooze quietly for a minute, maybe alchemy took more out of him than he was willing to let on. He sighed and walked to his laptop, dropping into the chair at the table, rubbing irritatedly at the wound on his shoulder. Tomorrow would be even more eventful than today, that he was certain.
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist, Supernatural
AU: Mashup
Characters/Pairing: Ed, Al
Rating: T
Length: 3288
Summary:
Their stop was not at Conte's residence, which Ed found interesting. They drove out of town completely, heading through to the next town, gliding through the business district as if they belonged there. Al was noting the way they came carefully, which Ed realized and Marta realized as well, relaying more soft instructions to their driver.
After a long, pointless drive that made use of far too many turns and loops and double-backs - not fool-proof as Al was damn good at figuring out where they were - the car finally pulled into one of the many warehouses that bordered the business district as it rolled over into the industrial side of town.
It was much darker inside than outside, even with the heavy gray cloud-cover and threat of snow. After the car had been silent for a moment, Marta turned to look at them. "Get out, both of you."
Ed and Al exchanged looks, but got out of the car. As soon as they had closed the doors, the driver started the vehicle again. Marta rolled down her window. "If you live through this, Conte will take you on as his students," she said. With no further explanation, the car was slammed into reverse and literally burned rubber as it backed out of the warehouse.
"If we /survive/ this?" Al said as the door they entered through slid to a close behind them.
Ed glanced around. "I've got a /bad/ feeling about this, Al."
"You're not the only one," Al murmured, grateful that they at least remembered to come with weapons. Both brothers scanned the dim warehouse, trying to figure out what precisely was going on here.
There were tables lined up in rows, and further than that, entire aisles of shelves. Some still held boxes. There was litter on the floor, and when Ed wasn't looking where he was stepping, he stepped on a rat.
Neither had pulled their weapons yet. "We're probably being watched from somewhere," Al said. His eyes were scanning the roof, high over their heads. Murky light filtered from ancient, filmed-over skylights. "I don't like this," he said.
"What sort of test do you think this is?" Ed said.
"Well, given the whole /survive/ parting line," Al gritted. "I don't know why I let you drag me in to these things, I really don't...
Something swooped out of the darkness above them. Al ducked out of habit, but whatever it was didn't get anywhere near him. "Bats?"
Al pushed some trash aside with his foot. "I don't think so, there really isn't any sort of guano..."
Ed wished dearly for a flashlight. He could see something swooping up in the rafters. "It's too big to be a bat," he said, trying to focus on it.
For the time being, it didn't seem interested in either of them, so they moved past the long metal tables. Closer to the tables there were hangers all about, Ed stepped on a plastic hanger and it broke, the cracking noise shooting out into the darkness of the warehouse.
Al stopped at glared at him.
"I'm sorry," Ed said sarcastically. "I wasn't aware that we were trying to be stealthy."
Al drew his gun - the regular one, not the Colt. Ed nodded at him but didn't draw his own, he wasn't very accurate or good with it with the cast on.
They moved professionally into the racks that lined the warehouse the deeper the moved into it. Al stopped suddenly and Ed, a few feet to the other side, up a different aisle, paused as well, glancing at him.
"Did you hear that?"
Ed nodded, shooting his brother a look. There was something ahead of them, but what there was no telling. It sounded big, and it was moving. Ed moved hesitantly forward, listening to the heavy footfalls. "What do you think it is?"
"Something big," Al responded. "And there's either two of them, or one on four feet."
Their eyes had adjusted to the gloom well, but it was still nearly impossible to make out the moving shape in the murky darkness ahead of them. "What the hell do you think it is?"
"I couldn't tell you, Ed," Al gritted out, the grip on his gun tight. "We need to find it and deal with it."
Ed made an affirmative noise. The litter that was strewn across the ground had gradually changed. Paper still, some plastic bags, others were scraps of fabric. Ed turned down another aisle, still keeping Al in his peripheral vision, and kicked something when he wasn't looking down. The clatter caught his attention, and Ed's stomach dropped.
"Al," he called. "I found bones."
Al came back the way he had gone, doubling around to head in Ed's direction. "Animal?" he called back as he got closer.
Ed crouched, pulling the one he'd kicked out from under the metal racks. He almost wished he hadn't. "No, definitely human. It's a femur." It was cracked partially open, and Ed's fingers paused. "These are tooth marks."
He looked up as Al entered the aisle. "I think I've found our first problem with the professor," he said grimly, getting to his feet.
Somewhere in the dark before them, there was a distinct growling that had started. Ed glanced down into the darkness, then over at Al before pulling his own weapon from the back of his pants, flicking the safety off. "Let's kill this fucking thing," he said.
As they progressed further down the aisle, more bones became evident. It was obvious that it was the outer circle of some kind of nest, and the bones the furthest out had to be the oldest. The brothers moved stealthily now, no words between them but glances and signals. They worked as a team, splitting down two aisles, alertly scanning for their prey. Whatever the predator was that they were stalking, they would be prepared for it.
Ed started up a new aisle - the deeper into the warehouse they got, the fewer boxes lined the metal racks. He hesitated, the heavy footsteps they had continually heard had all but ceased. He didn't like it.
Something was wrong here, the quality of the air was changing. It smelled fetid, almost like rancid meat.
The gentle creaking of the metal rack was all that alerted him. Ed glanced up at the rocking rack and saw the eyes, a moment before the creature leaped at him.
Ed leveled his gun at the creature, right between the eyes, and shot. So much for the cast destroying his aim, he saw the bullet hit the creature seconds before it hit him. Ed was slammed to the ground by the bulk of it, he didn't have time to make even a noise as he hit the concrete with enough force to break ribs. The creature didn't move again.
Al heard the commotion and came running, saw Ed under the now-dead beast and started prying his older brother out from under the beast. It took Ed kicking as hard as he could and Al's entire body weight to roll the beast.
Ed didn't look so good but he stood up shakily. "What the - /hell/ is that?"
It looked like a hybrid of a lion and an alligator. Giant golden paws and haunches framed a reptilian torso. The head was ghastly. "It's a chimera," Al said, in shock. Ed leaned against the metal rack for a moment, trying to suck air into his bruised lungs.
"Fuck if I know what that is," he groaned. "I think I cracked a rib."
Immediately there were more of the pawsteps.
"There's MORE of them?" Ed said in disbelief.
"At least we know bullets work on them," Al said grimly.
"The fuckers can jump," Ed said. "We need this out in the open to fight them, otherwise we might not see them coming."
"Yeah," Al said, kicking the metal rack and having the noise reverberate throughout the entire warehouse. "What do you suggest?"
Before Ed could open his mouth, he noticed the wan light winking off of the wide-set eyes from several chimera at the far end of the aisle. The one in the fore led, its mouth open menacingly.
Al shot it through one eye. "I'm open to ideas," he said evenly.
"Fuck, how do things like this even exist," Ed said, picking one off of the racks above them. "I'm beginning to not be a fan of alchemy."
"Famous last words," Al said.
Ed inclined his head backwards. "It might be wise to, you know, retreat."
"I'm inclined to agree," Al said, ducking backwards and heading the way they came. Ed winced as he ran after Al, it hurt to move but now was not the time to lick injuries. Ed noticed the swooping predator a few seconds before it struck. "Al, watch out!"
Al glanced back at him and saw the shadow a split second before it hit him. He hit the ground hard, curving talons slicing into his shoulder. Ed tried to get a bead on the beast - it looked like a goddamn huge parrot - and it turned, opening its wings and beak and launching itself toward him.
He ducked, sliding on the crap that littered the floor and barely missed being scalped by the razor-sharp talons. He could feel his hair flutter as they passed. "Al!"
Al was up on one knee, shooting at the bird with one hand clamped over his shoulder.
"What the - what the goddamn hell," Al panted, staunching the flow of blood with his hand. "No wonder she said "if."
"I wonder how many hapless "recruits" have come here only to be fed to these monsters," Ed said. He helped Al to his feet, wincing even as he did so.
"Would explain a lot, no missing persons reports locally." Al huffed as they moved out of the metal racks quickly. Ed turned to shoot at the pursuing chimera and swore hard, he was out of bullets.
He shoved Al forward a few steps, clapping his hands together awkwardly and putting them flat on the metal table next to them. Al went to ask him what he was doing and Ed drew the metal toward him. Al watched in surprise as Ed crafted a simple sword from the table. "It's crap," he breathed, gripping it one-handed, "but it doesn't run out of ammo."
"Do you think we can kill them all?" Al asked.
"Doubt it," Ed said. "We need to get out of here. Any ideas?"
Al reached out above Ed's head and he ducked as Al shot at the flying chimera. "I don't see anything," Al said grimly. Ed nodded, pointing the sword in the direction of the large, scaling chimera - who now moving out in the open looked like they were moving a whole lot faster than he originally thought.
They were swarming around them, not getting close but there had to be at least fifteen of them. "This isn't going to end well," Al said.
"Don't stop," Ed said. "Get out from where the tables are, we've got to keep moving."
They ran. The bird chimera buzzed them again but Ed hit it, it went spiraling somewhere before recovering mid-air and flapping elsewhere, shrieking in rage.
Ed slid on a piece of litter and fell, twisting and hitting the ground hard as he did so.
"Ed!" Al had gotten several strides away. Before he could turn to retrieve Ed, Ed had a revelation. He sprung to his feet, putting arms to use levering himself up and ignoring the pain as adrenaline pumped through his system. "Ed?" Al hesitated as Ed ran straight toward the chimera, screaming wildly, waving the sword now clenched tight in both hands.
The chimera were startled and scattered slightly, clearly not expecting the kamikaze attack. Ed dropped the sword, slammed both hands together and dropped, putting them down on the paper that was everywhere.
Al got no warning. One moment there was nothing and the next the papers in Ed's immediate vicinity went up in flames. Paper burned quickly, but there was so much of it it spread across the floor fast.
The chimera made some kind of high-pitched distress noise - this particular piece of prey was far more trouble than the others that had come willingly into its den. They backed off, milling in confusion as the fire spread. Al kicked paper aware from where he was at, and Ed staggered back in his direction, watching the ceiling warily. "Either that was an actual test," Ed said, "or they just tried to kill us."
"Either way," Al winced as he took his hand away from his shoulder wound, "I think we're more than justified in putting a stop to Conte's activities now."
Ed nodded toward the retreating creatures as the flames licked higher. "I don't even know how he put together something like that." His eyes were dark. "If that's all that people are going to use alchemy for, well." He looked down at his cast, now soot-black and covered in a grimy film from the last few days. "I think they're going to have a very unpleasant conversation with my fist real soon."
Al sighed, jerking his head toward the exit. "Let's get the hell out of here, we have to figure out a way to get back to Mountain Grove and get our crap; the motel is compromised now anyway.
It only took a few moments for Ed to alchemize an exit from the warehouse, which he closed after they exited. The cold November air bit at them both, and the heavy skies were complaining now, soft particles of snow falling from the heavens.
Ed stared up at the sky as they stood on the sidewalk, trying to figure out how to get back. Very calmly, Ed said "I'm going to break Conte's neck."
Al looked at Ed in surprise, then had to reach out to catch the bulk of Ed's weight as he passed out. Al bore his weight down so he was crouched on the sidewalk, and he nearly panicked. Ed's face in the daylight was a shade of ashen gray, smudged with smoke. "Ed!"
Ed woke in a hospital bed. The first thing he recognized was the crisp smell of antibiotics and that's what made him open his eyes. He looked around in confusion, a hospital? Where was Al, what had happened? He looked at his right arm in confusion and saw that the cast had been cut off and the arm was wrapped, but not with a new cast.
He was trying to get out of the bed, IV be damned, when Al opened the door to the room. "Ed!" He closed the door quickly behind him.
Ed glowered at him, Al's face was dirty and his hair matted, and he was stripped down to his tee shirt, where Ed could see clean white bandages under the tears across the shoulder. "What the hell happened?" he croaked.
"You passed out," Al said, dragging the chair from the corner over to the side of Ed's bed. "The doctor said your overextended yourself, then he cut the ruins of your cast off. He thought the cast was a whole lot older than just a few days." He glowered right back at Ed. "He said the break was mostly healed."
Ed looked down at his wrapped arm in confusion. "What? Doesn't it take broken arms weeks to heal?"
"Yeah," Al said. "Usually." He took a sip of his coffee and regretted it, then returned to using it to warm his hands. "You've got a couple of bruised ribs, but they're not broken. Aside from that, and your mysteriously-healing-arm, the doctor said you're fit."
Ed glared at the room around him. "Then we need to get the hell out of here," he said. "And go put a stop to Conte's so-very-fun-activities."
Al nodded, glancing down at the coffee cup. "The warehouse burned down," he said. "And was taken care of by the government."
"We heard from the asshole alchemist yet?" Ed tore the IV out of his arm and Al winced.
"Ed, what the hell are you-"
"I'm getting out of here, that's what." He looked down at the hospital gown. "Fuck, do you know where my pants are?"
Al sighed. "They're being washed by the nurses. You have to wait at least until your clothes are clean - although the doctors probably won't be too keen on you checking yourself out, I think they wanted to keep you for observation."
"They can observe me mooning their goddamn selves if I don't get my pants," Ed said. "Have we heard from Conte, or haven't we?"
"We have," Al said. "We're invited to a, a. Get this, a gala being thrown in his honor in the middle of town."
"A gala," Ed said.
"Yup."
"A /gala./"
"Yes."
"Did he use those exact words?"
"His lackey did, yes. They said it was black tie."
"Let me get this straight. We're going to a black-tie gala being held in the honor of an insane alchemist who has been feeding people to a horde of chimeras in order to curry his favor so we can get close enough to gank him per the orders of an angel we're not even entirely sure that we trust."
"You've got it pretty much summed up, yeah."
Ed cocked his head thoughtfully. "Have I ever mentioned how strange our lives are?"
"Clearly, not enough."
Al was right, the doctor was Not Keen on the idea of Ed checking himself out, but more powerful people than a single doctor had tried to stop him from doing what he wanted. He instead tightly wrapped Ed's arm and had him put it in a sling, warned him that it wasn't fully healed yet and he should probably put a cast on it again just to keep it safe, but Ed waved that off.
The moment they were in the taxi back to Mountain Grove Ed was unwinding the bandage on his right arm. Al rolled his eyes as Ed stretched both arms over his head. "Ahh," he said. "Feels so good to be out of the cast."
"Nothing too strenuous," Al cautioned him, but Ed shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest, nodding off for the remainder of the ride back to their hotel.
Information about the gala was waiting for them at the office, where Al headed to pay another few nights. There were also two tuxes in Ed and Al's sizes waiting for them.
"Okay that?" Ed said as Al came back to the room with the suits. "That is incredibly creepy, how'd they get our sizes?"
"This entire thing is moving quickly into the realm of bizarre," Al said. "Killing chimera and now attending galas, I don't even know where to go with this."
Ed flopped on the bed, finding the remote and flipping on the tv. "No point to worrying about it now," he said. "Might as well let things just roll along at the rate they're going. We're getting closer to Conte - and we're getting closer to figuring out what he's up to, clearly this is cause for a nap."
Al opened his mouth, but Ed had already closed his eyes.
"A nap," Al said. He watched Ed snooze quietly for a minute, maybe alchemy took more out of him than he was willing to let on. He sighed and walked to his laptop, dropping into the chair at the table, rubbing irritatedly at the wound on his shoulder. Tomorrow would be even more eventful than today, that he was certain.
