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Open The Chimera Project II

The red dragon lifted her head weakly and looked towards the now-unconscious Edward, her gold eyes glowing. Her breathing was ragged and seemed to be slowing.

'I can do it from here.' She broadcasted, turning her face skywards.

The red creature started to mumble, using her real voice, and shut her eyes. She started to glow, and the light around her burst off in a blue wave as a star-like point of light burst upwards. The light settled itself on Edward, apparently being absorbed into his body. The wound in the boy's shoulder disappeared, the bullet clattering to the concrete floor. He didn't wake up, but looked fine.

The creature, however, looked like she was wavering on the brink of death. She tottered slightly in midair, then whatever power holding her up as she hovered vanished, and she hit the floor, head knocking to the concrete with a crack. She didn't move.
 
Fang slowly walks towards the dragon-creature, kneeling down next to it. He places a hand on the back of her neck and leans down to where he believes her ear may be.

"I know...that you are dieing...but please, before you are completely gone...tell me what you are, what your name is..."

Heh, foolish human...she is someone more powerful than you can believe...but it is too bad that she is to leave us...

Fang looks around a bit, the fur on the back of his neck standing on end.

"...w-who...who is that..."
 
Usually it wouldn't have worked.

To really make a death sad, Marisa always believed, you had to make the reader really care for the dying. It shouldn't be any of the cheap stuff either, like making it a little kid and slaughtering it. First the character would have to be built up; the reader would have to really connect to it, to feel for the character as much as she did for the protagonists.

Then when the character died, it would really hurt.

After all, people were slaughtered by the thousands in some stories - and the reader didn't really care for those, except maybe for an oh-how-horrible reaction because of the sheer numbers. Or the hero would kill several faceless enemies and maybe angst over the first kill or so. Why should the reader care about the death of someone with just as little characterisation - a character with only a few lines?

Especially when it was obvious the character was going to die. As it was for the dragon. Everything had been pointing to it, and Marisa could say that it honestly didn't come as a surprise.

So there was no good reason why Marisa wiped the back of her hand against her cheek, and found it wet.

"It's too late." Marisa stared at the dragon-thing, totally sure of the death even if it technically wasn't confirmed. "I guess we'll never even know her name..."

But why would she need a name? She only existed to get them out of a sticky situation... right? For Edward, at least. Neatly prevent his death, remove all permanent damage, and all of that, plus a sad moment that might be used as motivation later. Shame that Tuxa didn't get healed, but she probably wasn't dying and there'd be something else to come along and fix that, later.

Damn, but it was really effective when she was actually experiencing this.

"I-I'm going to try to free the rest of the magical animals." Marisa started walking toward the cages by the walls, turning back to glance at the fallen dragon. No, they probably wouldn't end up dying right away. That would ruin the moment, unless it was to become important later on.
 
The small dragon didn't move when Fang touched her, her fluffy body quickly becoming cold to the touch. She looked battered, like she'd been knocked around before being placed in the cage.

The creatures in the other cages had started to move restlessly when the dragon fell, making soft sounds and butting against the bars of their cages. The dog-creature howled and bit at the bars, before spitting a torrent of fire that licked and singed the floor. The sparking one slammed a lightningbolt-shaped tail against the cage and cried out. From another cage, something blue and round with floppy ears tried to bend the bars, and they were giving out, but not much.

The racket roused Edward, who sat up. Expecting pain, he winced, but opens one eye when none came.

"What...?"

She healed us. The Goddess... She gave her life for us...

Goddess? What the hell..?
 
Fang shutters abit fro the cold feeling of the dragon, retracting his hand again. He looks down to the floor as a single tear rolls down his face.

The Priestess...was a truly kind soul back home...

Fang closes his eyes, trying to think clearly.

"This voice...are you in my head?"

You can hear me...?

Fang falls silent, listening to the sound of the other creatures trying to break free.

Yeah...I can hear you..who are you?

...I am not from this place...as for who I am...That will be discovered later on. You and the others must escape from here before it is too late...run...before you are captured once more

Fang slowly gets to his feet, turning to the truck. He walks towards it as if in a trance. He remembers someone warning that there may be people on the truck, but he knew there was no other auras on it. He open the door and slips into the seat behind the wheel.

"Everyone...once we are done freeing everyone, get on the truck..."
 
Tuxa looked at the creatures in the cages. It was strange, what the dragon-like creature had done, healing Edward's arm, how did it do that? She didn't care that it didn't heal her too, as she felt quite good... But when the dragon fell, she had to wipe some tears away from her eyes. She hadn't seen many creatures die, except for the guards down where the cell was, and her dog...

"Calm down... We're friends, at least I am..." Tuxa said as the other creatures began getting more and more restless. It seemed that they were affected by the dragon creature's death.

"Everyone...once we are done freeing everyone, get on the truck..."

An older boy said, with somewhat pointy ears and sharp spikes on his hands. Free them? Oh, yeah. They probably don't like being trapped in those cages, I wouldn't. Tuxa wasn't very strong, if they were attacked -if she didn't have psychic powers- the cleverest option for her would be to flee.

She closed her eyes and turned to one of the cages, where a blue, round creature tried to bend the bars. The creature was startled as Tuxa's gem began to glow red. She consentrated on the bars, and tried to bend them with the creature. The bars bent a little, but the creature still couldn't get out.

Not smart... I will be too weakened before I can even bend the bars enough for a rat to get out... What if... Tuxa focused on the lock of the cage. She was going to try and unlock the cage by just moving some mechanisms in it. Tuxa struggled a little, as she wasn't very familiar to locks or mechanisms, but she managed it at last.

The cage swung open, and the creature carefully stepped out, wary of it's surroundings.

Tuxa panted, sweatdrops rolling down between her eyes and down her cheeks... It was kind of hard work, when she was unfamiliar with the lock mechanisms, and as she was new to her abilities, but she continued with the creature with the lighting shaped tail's cage.
 
"Hold still," said Bakur to a creature. "This might be a bit silly."

With two whacks of his tail, he freed the fire-breathing dog.
 
How intriguing... Evan watched the dragon as her - apparently the creature was a "she" - life faded away to bring the pain-wracked Edward Elric back to full-health. He considered that this was only natural; the laws of equivalent exchange required that, to obtain something else, an object of equal value must be given up. And, when dealing with the human body itself, what else but one's own life is of comparable worth? It was a shame the dragon had to die immediately after they met her; she could have been a powerful ally, if not a source of valuable information. The other chimeras seemed to be taking her death pretty seriously, but he already tell why; they were, as he had already established, children. They did not yet understand death, only that it was tragic for the innocent to die, and was honorable to strike down the wicked, like they thought the people conducting this experiment to be.

"I shouldn't have come. It's worse now..." The proximity of the voice surprised Evan; he could see everyone in front of him, tending to the truck and the creatures trapped. Oh, that's right... He looked down and spotted Karae, depressed once again, sitting on the ground at his feet and fiddling with the spear he had given her, just as he had expected. Okay, so maybe there was someone who needed him. After all, if there really was no one paying attention to her, then no one else would get her out of this rut she had dug herself into. Might as well get started on fixing that problem.

"Karae, there's more to it than your lack of strength or abilities in this little equation. Because you acknowledge them so readily, you don't even bother to try helping us. If you wish to amount to anything, you must have the confidence to reach out and grasp this purpose in life you so desire." He could see now that one of the chimeras was going to get the truck up and running for them to escape. That takes a bit of time out of his lesson; gotta wrap things up quickly. "If you still think you can't do anything, then by all means stay here and wait for the guards to capture you again. I, on the other hand, am going to help those experiments in the cages. This is your choice now."
 
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Karae looked up, surprised that he had approached her once more. At first she thought he wanted his spear back, but once he started talking... "You - you care enough to tell me this?" she asked, knowing she was avoiding the problem, but she needed to verify it. What he said made sense - if she underestimated herself, she would indeed amount to nothing. And weren't the experiments in the cages even worse off than she was, expecting death like the dragon? She had been told she was useless. It was why she had accepted her situation so easily, because she had been just trash to throw away since she had been taken in by the orphanage. Was this why she allowed herself to fail so easily? She was being a fool...

Getting to her feet, she looked up at Evan, ignoring the fact that he looked rather monstrous. She, really, was no better. "I..." She wanted to take the easy way out, to ask what he thought perfection was like, so she could strive for that, but it felt wrong. "It would be so easy to fail now. To just let them come." Perfection was a hard goal to reach. She had to work to reach it... "But I wouldn't get anywhere." she continued, aware this probably was making no sense whatsoever. "I will go with you." She wasn't pledging herself to the group, but Evan alone. He had been the one to take notice of her twice, and treat her like - like a person. Not a freak, not like street trash. Karae couldn't care less about the rest, for now, at least. "I'm in your debt as well."
 
(( *takes control* ))

The dog yelped when the collapsing metal slammed into its side, but it scrambled out of the cage quickly - even a major bruise, or possibly a cracked rib, wasn't enough to even stall its escape. It might have even been used to such injuries. Marisa didn't think harming the creatures was ideal, but it seemed that everyone else was better at it than she was - even if it harmed the thing inside, if it could move, it was better to do that.

She'd leave them to it, though she did so despise being the useless one.

But she'd already known that fire-controlling abilities was fairly useless except when it came to battle, except maybe for a little use in camping. And she otherwise didn't have many abilities, especially physically. She hated feeling like that, but realistically she knew there was little she could do... and trying would only cause her to get in the way.

It wasn't any of the feelings that she'd thought was stupid, she was sure - thinking she was worthless because she had failed at something, or just because of some inferiority complex. She had tried the one thing she thought might work, and knew that the other thing she might try would only be harmful - melting the cage would surely kill the contents, assuming she was even that strong with fire.

Oh, she'd probably find something she'd be good at soon. Everyone did, didn't they? Or they were dead weight, and dead weight wasn't needed on any team.

Instead she did what would get her out of the way: grab some supplies and get on the truck.
 
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Rose took the box, and stood next to the truck. "Do I get to ride in the back?" She asked joyfully, still holding the box of fruits. She had determined that it was pineapple; hopefully they wouldn't go bad very quickly. At least they were hard and tough on the outside, to prevent damage, and she could always cut it with her claws. It was all planned out, she thought.
 
A-01 sighed as he hefted himself into the back of the truck, his head still ringing. When he tried to remember why his head was ringing though, he was unable to find the answer. Shaking his head, he placed his arm over his eyes and took a deep breathe. The others could pack the truck up without him.
 
Edward stood up, prodding at his now-healed shoulder with a steel finger. He did that for a moment or two before he took a good look around. He looked like he was gathering his thoughts, making a plan.

"Alright!" He finally called, right back in form "Let's get into that truck and find Mustang! He should be able to sort us out."
 
Bakur nodded and sat/stood in the back of the truck. He avoided whacking anything with his tail, just in case something was to break.
 
Rose followed carefully behind Bakur. Even though she was itching to test her abilities, now was not the time. They had to find this "Mustang." He definitely wasn't a wild horse, she knew that, because otherwise, why would he be so famous?

What she wanted to do now was find out who she was. Why was she spliced? What is this thing that she was spliced with? It was a dragon-like creature, and she knew dragons could summon many elements... But now wasn't the time to see if she was right. She curled up and fell into a deep slumber that she needed.
 
Evan sighed; taking the time to make sure that Karae doesn't let herself die looks like it's going to be even more troublesome than it will be to protect her in battle. Nevertheless, keeping her confidence in check would prove to be far more beneficent to their cause in the long run.

Edward said they were going to look for Roy...Would that really be that best solution? Maybe for the aspiring alchemist; he did seem to have some kind of relationship with the Colonel, but the way each of them had talked about the other seemed to suggest the relationship wasn't particularly stable. And what about the fiery girl, the one who claimed to be Mustang's daughter? If she was intent on following through with this charade, would she betray the group after being reunited with her "father"? And of course there was Evan's little encounter with him earlier; if he was in on this project, what was stopping him from sending them back to the cell.

Thoughts of the project, however, shifted his line of concentration. He took a moment to hold up his pale arms, looking at the bracelets on his wrists and, more precisely, the alchemical circles inscribed upon them. It was one thing to kidnap random civilians for this scheme, another to experiment on actual state alchemists, and a step even further to have given Evan this form, one that amplified his alchemical abilities. It was almost as if they had wanted him and the other chimeras to escape...

No matter, he thought while stepping up into the open truck. I am far stronger than I was not so long ago. Roy may be planning something, but I'm going to be ready and waiting for him this time.
 
Marisa had just finished with the supply-grabbing part (at least, as much as she intended to do) when she heard the call to get into the truck, and... find Mustang. The first she had no problem with. The second, well...

Well, damn.

It hadn't been important, and everyone knew already, but it was still a shame. Whatever. She'd brush it off when the time came, and seeing everybody's reactions would help her figure out some stuff about them. Of course sometimes deceit was blown out of proportion and the deceiver was unfairly punished by outside events - but whatever.

It was ... interesting that Edward had such great faith in Mustang's abilities, though. She would have expected that someone else might suggest it and he'd argue. Although, she mused, maybe she was supposed to be the one do so, but since she didn't, it fell to Edward to say it.

And he was the leader, anyway... but not for long if Mustang joined them. That might not happen, though. Mustang was too competent (in theory), so he'd probably either be disappointing, weakened somehow, or decide to travel separately and only join up when they needed him.
 
Edward made his way to the truck, his tail bobbing behind him. He stopped when he saw the red creature that had saved him. The goddess, that voice had called her. He knelt next to her head and ran his left hand over her soft down. She was cold, but lingering warmth clung to her feathers, seeping into Edward’s hand. She’d died for him. Because of him. How many times had someone been hurt or killed because of him?

The feline teen sat and wrapped his arms around her neck, drawing her head into his lap. She was so light… He marveled at this strange being, her structure was something he’d ever seen in a living creature before. Wings… But they looked much to weak to hold her. Her hind legs were odd too. What was this thing?

He ran his hands over her soft neck, feeling the fine down under his fingers.

“She’s so pretty…”

Of course. She is a goddess.
 
Karae wasn't one to lag behind when everyone else in the group was already in the truck. Walking over, she climbed on and tucked herself into a space far enough from the rest so that she could just - observe. She didn't expect to be noticed. In fact, she would rather just watch them, maybe doze a bit... Her throat was starting to feel dry, but she ignored it. She had been far worse off, and if her stomach started to feel extremely empty, she would beg some more water from Evan. Really, all she wanted to do was rest. Rest, and try to fight the panic that was rising in her. She was going with a group of strangers, who had the power to kill so easily. And she had no idea what was going to come next.

Strategy was planning out in advance. Karae liked strategy - she had enjoyed playing games that relied on good strategies when she had been taken in briefly by a family. But this, this unpredictable turn of events... She would have thought they would escape, find food, scatter and try to live out some sort of life. But no. The strange creature...

The goddess. a voice whispered, and she flinched, then discarded it as a measure of her exhaustion. Hearing voices - really. Looking at Evan and offering the spear to him, she tilted her head, eyes half-closed. "...Thank you." She was so tired, but she wanted to at least let him know she was grateful.
 
It didn't look like Karae had gotten much of a chance to prove her usefulness this time. Oh well - Evan doubted that the journey would be ending soon - she would have her moment in the spotlight another time. "Take a good, long rest, kid," he said to the barely-conscious girl and took the proffered spear, "You've managed to get through a lot today, and there's no telling how much awaits us in the next dawn." Great, now I'm starting to sound like some kind of old martial arts master. I wonder if this is how mother and father had to deal with me when I was younger.

But it was true, regardless, that the hardest that fate had in store for the chimeras would be a long time from now. The guards they had fought up until now were only small fry; they had yet to go up against the masterminds of this plan, those who were so inhuman to not even care about the morals of society and even begin to consider this hideous experiment. And with them, of course, was Colonel Mustang...well, at least that was one encounter he was somewhat looking forward to.

His group, the more humanoid chimeras, as it would seem, were in a considerably good condition. Then there were these other creatures, the ones locked in the cages; they didn't have the slightest resemblance to any creature Evan had met before, so what else could they be but more of the alchemical crossbreeds? The draconic creature still lay motionless, her form being held and caressed by a despondent Edward Elric. It was almost like a child mourning over his deceased mother - although Evan remembered Mustang saying that Madame Elric had passed away some time ago. Bah, it was only a passing matter; this was only the first casualty of many in their growing war. Soon they will understand how fragile life is in this world, how easily it can be taken away, and how willing the local villains are to commit such acts.

...But how could he think about such evil things? This creature was not killed, but had made a noble sacrifice to save one of her own. Such incredible selflessness, all from the kindness of one's own heart...how is that something Evan can look upon with so much ignorance? Hers was a loss that had touched all of them, and there was only his own pride preventing him from seeing that. It's almost as if something in my mind is telling me these things. How odd.

"You know, Edward," he said to the feline boy, "We shouldn't just leave the body in this dump where the scientists will probably just cremate the remains. It's only right that we give her a proper funeral, lest our memory of her sacrifice go on festering in guilt."
 
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