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Open The Chimera Project II

The stench of blood wasn't something Evan had become very accustomed to; he had heard stories of how the State Alchemists participated in the war, how they tore lesser humans to pieces without any hint of remorse, and how they reduced entire towns to ash in a matter of hours. Good thing he hadn't been around for that. True, the revulsion of his current situation was nowhere near as bad as it would have been in that dreadful predicament, but it was rather disgusting nonetheless. The guards dumb enough to have not retreated had been sliced, battered, smashed, and burned to death or at least close to it, their bodies now littering the crowded hallway. How vulgar...

Edward, currently being held up by the insect boy he had freed earlier, was down for the count, but he appeared to be struggling to remain conscious. The wound in his shoulder looked pretty severe, and could quite possibly prove to be fatal if the flow of blood wasn't stopped. As the others chimeras rounded themselves back together, he began to consider what their next objective would; the indicative thunder of more soldiers approaching had yet to make itself known, so they were safe for the moment, but where would they go now? Edward would need serious medical attention as soon as possible, which would be pretty hard to find without giving themselves up to the authorities. Deciding to take the next best alternative, Evan tore a length of cloth from his cloak. "With the bullet still in Ed's shoulder we can't just cauterize the wound, and trying to get it out without an expert's advice could just make the situation worse. In the meantime, we can use this to at least hinder the flow of blood." He directed the last comment directly to the feline alchemist; "Keep your arm as still as possible at all times or else the bone fragments will shift around. If you can't then I'll just have to freeze it in place for you."
 
"...Evan... I already told you, and everyone else. One, it is far too dirty here to try to mess with his wounds. Two, we have guards that would gladly shoot us if we stopped. Three, his bleeding is superficial, it looks a lot worse then it actually is." A-01 replied to Evan's comment. His voice started soft and comforting, but slowly grew more agitated with every syllable. He only realized this though as he ended his speech, and was then confused. He was slightly annoyed at being pestered again about how to take care of edwards, but those words and tone, they seemed foreign. So he slowly thought to himself to try to calm his nerves.

I didn't mean to sound so harsh... Its just that it was annoying that he thought he knew more then I did. I know what is lethal, I know I-

A-01 almost tripped as he realized that he was once more becoming agitated, but saved himself from falling and kept Edward safely held in his arms. His eye twitched as he felt the wetness of Ed's blood stained clothing touch his bare skin.

Blood...

Something about the blood was making him think strangely, and as if trying to remove the influence from his mind, he shook his head.

Just focus... Focus on the steps, one, two, three, four. He slowly counted to himself, the hypnotizing repetition slowly winning over the voices within him.
 
The pain flared up strongly again as Edward's body was jarred by movement, and he snarled, clenching his eyes shut. Tears were spilling down his cheeks, and he chastised himself for letting himself cry. This was nothing. He could get through it...

But the pain hissed and snarled at him, and he couldn't take it anymore. He let out a sharp cry and snapped his eyes open, their pupils slitted.

"Just get it out! it hurts, please..."
 
Tuxa looked at Edward, then gulped. "I... I can try to remove it, but it would hurt, and I'm no pro either." She said. Ed was in pain, and she could help.

It's strange, when I use psychic. When I use it, it feels like I have done it for years, that I'm a professional, even though I just started moments ago... She shrugged, and rubbed the gem on her forehead with one finger. It was very similar to the one Ed had. Red, round, shiny...
 
Fang follows the others, slippinf his hands into his pockets. He hops next to the insect boy and Edward with a cheerful smile on his dog-ish face.

"If the bullet is made of silver, I can get it out. But since no one really uses silver bullets anymore, I can't help you much~"

He pats Ed's head, then dashes abit ahead. He blinks his eyes once to activate his other sight, as if he's done it his entire life.

Well...new life now I geuss

He searches to see if there was any other lights moving around. Seeing as if was clear so far, he waves to the group to hurry up.
 
"We might not have a choice, I don't see any guards, and we can't be sure how much damage was done," Marisa told the bug-boy for the sake of argument. She wasn't sure how accurate his points were, but she was all for not doing anything right now, so she was quite happy to just leave it at that. Besides, if the bone really wasn't shattered, no shards would cut any important blood vessels - and they'd probably end up lucky anyway, and the wound was nothing fatal. That's what always happened - the heroes weren't allowed to die.

Edward was easier to argue against. "Getting it out probably won't help much, though, if we can't heal the shoulder after... we'll have to cut through all sorts of stuff and then you're likelier to die. Or get gangrene or something, and we'll have to cut your arm off."

Anything that looked like a no-win situation would probably present a fast and easy solution around the next corner, probably literally. She didn't expect to run into any real problems, and though she usually wished that realism would swoop in and kill the heroes, she was content with this rule.
 
Edward made a soft grunting sound and lied still, trying to ignore the pain. That wasn't working all that well, but at least he was trying...

Meanwhile, around the corner, was the loading dock, a lone truck parked. There were several cages in groups around the walls, each one holding a strange creature. From one cage, a soft growling could be heard, and a pitch black dog-like creature paced, a whip-like tail with a triangle point whipping. From another, sparks rose and scattered over the concrete, the creature inside making a weak 'raaai' sound each time a rain of sparks was emitted. Countless others were in the steel containers, but one in particular stood out.

A single cage, larger than the rest, sat in the middle of the floor. It seemed empty at first glance, but if one were to look closer, there was a ripple like that caused by heat in the centre of the bars.
 
A-01 sighed in relief as he saw the sight of the truck. He didn't bother to care about its cargo, just the fact they were there made him feel a little less anxious.

"One of you secure the truck, the others of you, grab as much food or supplies or anything you can pick up and put it in the back of the truck. I'm going to get these bullets out of him while you all do that."

A-01 didn't even wait for a response, instead he went immediately to setting Edward on the ground with grace that even a cat would be envious of, setting his legs up on a bucket in order to keep blood going to his head.

With a twitch of his right hand, his index finger became a more blade like. A-01 didn't pause, instead agilely making fine incisions around each bullet hole and then removing the bullets from his wounds. It took only ten seconds, his hands working at a blur.

But then, everything stopped for A-01. His arm was raised and, should he bring it down quickly, would easily decapitate Edward.

His blood...Kill him

For what seemed like an eternity, he wait there with his armed raised. Some force within him rose up within him, trying to wrench his arm downward towards Edward's exposed body. A-01 swallowed hard, suddenly he wanted to as well. To see the glorious inner workings of Edwards sleek body exposed, to see the blood lightly trickle down his neck, to taste his panic slowly subside into calmness, then into darkness. It continued to whisper in his ear, softly telling him he could get away with it. The others he could kill as well, they were all too tired and beaten to resist.

It will be so wonderfull. You just need to bring your hand do-

Suddenly A-01 brought his hand down, but not upon Edward. It had changed back into a regular hand and had hit the ground next to Edward as a fist.

"...No. Thats not me. You're not me." He said to himself slowly, deliberately focusing on each syllable, each sound.

He closed his eyes, and then the voice was gone.
 
"I'll trust you to do that," Marisa told A-01 as she stood behind him, knowing full well that expressions of confidence in someone tended to increase the chance of them doing it perfectly. "I think I'll... ah, go free the things in the cages over there."

That would achieve several objectives. The most important one would be that she'd not have to see the surgery first-hand (she much preferred descriptions to pictures when it came to blood and gore). But she'd also get to strike back at the alchemists, see what the hell was in there, and possibly end up recruiting something semi-intelligent into their little group, which could be useful later. As meat, if nothing else, and meat that would stay fresh until they needed it. She could even provide the fire to cook it, though she'd let someone else do the killing.

She walked up to the large, empty-looking, but isolated cage, because it looked Significant. She crouched down, peering inside, wondering how to open it. Fire? No, that would kill what was inside, and that shouldn't be done on a Significant being that might turn out to be the irritating but useful pet for someone. How to free it, though...

She looked down at her tail. It had cut through a leg somehow (she winced as she remembered it, and as she looked down at the blood on her fur), so maybe she could try that on the bars?

"Stay back," she told it, and struck the bars with the tip of her tail.

Of course, nothing happened, except a flicker of interest from the flames.

How do I do it? she wondered. Cut with my tail... if I knew how, at least they'd have some purpose.

By the sudden flare, she suspected she'd insulted the fire somehow, but wrote that off as something Significant but not Of Immediate Importance.

So... she'd have to make her tail stronger, somehow. But how? Stiffening it? She didn't think her muscles went all the way to the tip like that, and her tail had glowed when she did it. It wasn't something like fire, that leapt at her command.

Come on, she thought, striking the bars again. Yet again, there was no effect on the bars. What the hell do I do? Tell me, flames, she thought, suddenly inspired.

And nearly fell over from shock when it answered, No.
 
Edward bit his lip in pain as he felt the blade cut into him, his legs kicking out weakly as a reflex. It hurt, but he wasn't about to show that.

Pride comes before a fall.

Oh shut up, voice-in-my-head.

The thing in the cage suddenly made itself known, appearing in a weak burst of light. It was hovering a few inches from the cage bottom, and looked weak. It wasn't all that big, a bit over four feet, and covered in what looked like fluffy down. A pair of gold eyes shone in it's red-and-white face as it watched Marisa. The creature was vaguely dragonlike, with two sharp wings protruding from it's back.

'He's going to die soon.' A voice echoed in the heads of all those nearby, sounding very much female.
 
Another voice in his head,and something strange happened. Those ideas and words that had slipped into his mind rubbed against his mind. A very small bit of all the rage, the shame, the anxiety, the aggravation he had built up within him all the years he had lived suddenly broke forth from it's containment within his memory. It was emotional feed back, suddenly he was re-living over and over again pain memories, that meshed and overlayed and amplified one another. His hands flew up to his head, grasping it with the palms against his forehead, while his entire body collapsed to the ground. He lay there, shaking and trying to scream but the pain was too great, he couldn't even breathe.

Then, it stopped, and he was conscienceless.
 
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Fang studies the cages carefully, sensning the aura of the thing in the bigger cage. He tilts his head with it looked like twisted flames and in the shape of...the shape was all most...

"...looks like a mini dragon...I think...not sure..."

That seems very interesting, too bad he'll die

Fang jumps, lookign around for the source of the voice. A little freaked, he looks back at the cage.

"...I think it's hurt..."
 
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Rose shook her head. No he won't, not if I can help it, she growled in her thoughts. But where would she get supplies?
She broke open a crate nearby, and sure enough, it contained something; boxes of food, maybe. She took one and let the scent wash into her mouth. It contained a sour fruit... oranges? Lemons? Pineapples, even? She loved pineapples, but resisted and placed the box next to the one healing Edward. She then looked around, trying to see if anyone was securing the truck. She didn't know how to do it, exactly, since she had never thought that she would be in this situation before.
 
"No," Marisa said half-heartedly, "he's not."

It was more because she was confident that something, maybe something totally contrived, would happen to save him, because that always happened in near-death situations involving the main characters. And with her tails and ears and stupid fire-powers, what else could they be but the rag-tag group of main characters? She didn't know who the main-mains were, but Edward was probably one of them, so he definitely wouldn't die... but the first death within the group would be at least halfway through the journey, if one ever happened.

They were probably due for a Life-Changing Event soon, though. At least, one of them would be.

You know how? she asked the fire, more intent on getting this thing out - especially since she showed intelligence. Show me, or do it. Make my tail a blade.

She felt the flame's reluctance, but also the sense that it had to, at least this time. She attributed this to her command over the fire, and smirked when her tail stiffened and glowed.

Then she slammed the tail into the cage bars.

That turned out to be a bad idea, because the loud clang of metal-on-metal (wait what her tail was not metal) and the jarring of the cage made her jump, and must have done the same to everyone else. It might've interrupted the surgery, and attracted guards. And it definitely affected the thing inside.

"Sorry," she muttered, but was satisfied to at least see the bars bent a little. That had to mean something.
 
The creature inside the cage smiled sadly, her eyes showing pain.

'I can help him. There is no other purpose for me now, but to help him.'

She shut her eyes and concentrated, and disappeared. A second later, she appeared again, hovering closer to the ground outside the cage and painting. She was weakened incredibly, but still going.

'Bring him closer to me.'
 
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Flash Back said:
His feet went pitter pat against the dry concrete, but he did not mind the noise at all. No, he was grateful for it, with every step he took, the sound made his soon to be master peice run for just a bit longerr, hope just a bit harder. That time though gave her time to slowly give into fear, into doubt, into the most wonderfully exquisite emotions...

The girl's breathing was ragged now, her legs ached and pained, her arms now flailing as she stopped running and simply began a prolonged fall forward. She fell but continued to crawl with her eyes now intently on a knife, and the man slowed down to a walk, letting that conflict between 'If I can just make it' and 'its all over' rise to a spectacular crescendo...


She reached out for the knife, inch by inch her hand came nearer to it. It was the pinnacle of her life, the highest point of meaning and purpose. There were no dissonant or bothersome worries, she existed as her purest self. Her fingers touched the edge of the knife's handle, and the hope within her rang out like a fanfare.

Abruptly that fanfare died though as the man forcefully stepped on her hand and smiled at her. She was unable to move, unable to think, the hope and now the fear clashing together in chaotic mixes of emotions overwhelming her. Instead, she just shook.

He took her arm, she didn't struggle. She was too physically exhausted, as the only the high pitched noises of her mind swirled within her. He injected her, then sat down in a chair and watched. Slowly, he muscles relaxed, then her eyes, then her mind. All that chaos, all of that pain and suffering, it all floated away and left behind a beautiful peace.

He knelt beside her and with a knife, etched into her dead body:

Fugue #53
Click to expand...

((This is just a flashback A-01 is having, or rather, his other voice is having))
 
Sheesh, you save a guy from being imprisoned for a lifetime, and then he bites your head off. Good thing this only a metaphorical phrase because Evan's head probably wouldn't offer much resistance to being forcibly removed. He reflected on the position once again as the mismatched troupe of vagabonds left the gruesome fight scene behind and entered a docking area where a truck had been parked with numerous cages holding who-knows-what inside.

A State Alchemist is a tool of the military. As such they are able to gain access to certain privileges and authorities that normal citizens cannot. This also, however, establishes them on being a higher level of power than ordinary alchemists or those who cannot perform alchemy at all. Judging by how the military captured me and turned me into a hideous beast it is doubtful I am still an official state alchemist anymore, but that does not make me any less than what I know I am. He could see now that Ed had been placed onto the ground and the insect boy was tending to his shoulder (he wondered how hacking the skin apart was any less damaging than patching it up with a simple cloth) and many of the others had started messing around with whatever was in the cages.

They're...children. And yet they have established the proper techniques to survive in this tragedy. But in doing so they have relinquished their need for the older and more experienced individuals such as myself. They do not need the assistance of state alchemists to escape from these times of hardship. What does that make me now? The internal debate came to a halt as Evan's eyes laid upon the creature that had appeared from within the cages suddenly. The oddly fur-covered draconic being seemed to be beckoning for Edward, calling out with a kind of telepathic voice. On one hand, the lad would need all the help he could get with his current condition, but this...thing could have very easily gone insane from the crushing nature that the experiment had had on it. It could just as easily be trying to slit the boy's throat in one last fit of maniacal joy as it could have been flying the eponymous white flag of peace.

...No. There's nothing to worry about. Because they don't need you; only you need you.
 
The upcoming Life-Changing Event looked like it would be a tragedy, especially if it involved the dragon-thing, but it was probably necessary. Even if she knew that something sad was coming up, they might as well get it over with. But slamming her tail into the cage wasn't going to help too much, she had to admit, and besides, her tail had stopped glowing.

After the total failure to achieve anything with the tail-thing, it seemed that the fire was too busy cackling at her to help anyway.

And then it turned out that it was totally unnecessary, because the Significant Being used her powers to ... apparently teleport herself out of the cage. Whoop. Now Marisa could see her clearly, the red immobile wing-things, four strange legs, the head, and the all-around weirdness. Like a dragon, but more... cute.

Well. That wasn't too out of place if Marisa ignored the fact that this was really happening. Much like everything else.

"You heard her," Marisa called to the others, not wanting to be the one to move Edward, especially since she probably couldn't. "Bring Edward over here somehow."
 
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Karae had just followed along, finding herself, as she expected, useless. She knew nothing of healing, nothing of her supposed 'powers', and even the slight hope that the group could escape was fading fast. Remaining at the rear, not doing anything, she found herself stroking the blue orb at her neck again. Once her wings had unfolded somehow, she found she couldn't get them to furl at the sides of her head again. Finally, the girl gave up and tried to avoid looking at Ed or strange creature in the cage. She had to be perfect - it was her goal. If she was perfect, everyone would be happy with her. No one would want her to be better, because she would be the best at everything. But she couldn't be! Not in this state, starved, tired and confused. She had no alchemy, she had been turned into a chimera with no idea of her own powers... She was helpless. If Evan had decided to crush her skull instead of giving her water, she would not have been able to do anything. From a strategic perspective, she was just extra weight that dragged the rest down. Baggage to be cast aside, trash that needed to be kicked aside.

But Evan - he had given her water, he had given her the spear... She was still holding it, she realized, looking down at the spike. He seemed to care what happened to her. The others had ignored her completely, first when they were plotting their escape, then in the fight, and now with tending to Edward. Forgotten. Unneeded. Sitting down, she ran her fingers over the spear carefully, trying to divert her thoughts. She could think of a plan - something that would help Edward, that would make her anything but not useless... Nothing. There was no way she could help. What did she know of wounds, or strange caged beasts? She was just a child turned onto the street. Her luck had run out, and now she was just a freak. Looking down at the floor, she murmured, "I shouldn't have come. It's worse now..."
 
"I'll secure the truck," said Bakur. Without waiting for an answer, he walked quickly, toward the truck, but stopped.

"It could be guarded," he said, but stepped up to it anyway.
 
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