FULL METAL OUTCASTS

[Raron]

Micheal watched as the kid stepped out on stage, his mind concentrating on Run, her moment of distress confusing him it distracted him. At first he didn't realize, didn't process what the kid was as the stage cleared. He did watch as the circle appeared beneath the kids feet, he did feel the prickling of his scalp as the energy gathered but he was too late to figuring out where it was coming, where it was going. Stupid old man, too long off the battle field, too long in a tame village. he watched the arc of lightning, the force of it slamming his daughter... daughter... where did that come from?... into the balcony door. He winced with the impact and his face... his face was the gathering storm. He pointed at Run. His voice broking no argument, he stood his shoulders straighter then they had been in a long time.

"Mai, see to Run."

Micheal could see she was alive and that would have to do, he doubted she hit hard enough to damage anything permanently, maybe a broken bone but nothing fatal, but if he didn't deal with the kid on stage things would get worse... that is what logic said but as his foot impacted the door sending splinters to shower the stage his main thoughts were of red, of blood raining down, of rage with teeth. Inside he screamed, he roared, his anger pissing on the bars of his cage but on the outside his bows furrowed and his face stretched into a snarl at most. He descended the stairs the rage hurling him faster then he would have gone normally, he reached the first floor, the path to the stage opening every second as more people fled, he walked against the crowd each step deliberate as they instinctively stepped around him, did not touch the old man holding merely a wooden case.

Half way to the stage he stopped, his glare he knew had gotten the attention of the alchemist on stage. He knew the kid had to be planning another strike. He would not allow that, not while blood pumped in his veins. His voice was level, gentle even.

"All I wanted was to treat them to some culture, all I wanted was to do was take them to a play, enjoy a nice long nap but was that possible... noooooooooooo you had to zap my NOT MY GRANDDAUGHTER!... in the face with your stupid lighting, make me climb those stupid stairs and come down and beat you in the stupid face."

He pushed a button on the case's handle and the case popped open and four swords dangled from it's open space, four swords in sheaths all on a single belt. Micheal snatches it from the case and while throwing it aside in a long practiced motion he snapped it around his waist. The buckle spinning around his waist and hitting the clasp looking it in place. The old man stood, four swords around his waist. A broad sword and a long sword on his right, a sabre and a rapier on his left. The leather was long stained by sweat, the belt buckle bore the symbol of the state alchemists and the expression of the old man promised death. The broad sword and the sabre leapet into his hands almost of their own accord, be fumbled with them for a moment. He was a touch out of practice but he took his stance and looked at the kid, saw himself those years ago... and sighed.

"Kid. You don't know what's going on a grunt like you never knows. Trust me I have been there. So I am gonna be damn nicer to you then you were to her. I will give you and whoever you have with you waiting to strike, yes I know you are there. I can feel you watching me. I will give you both a chance to leave and report this situation, that I am here, to your superior. Trust me. They will probably commend your caution. So how about it? Just leave."

The voice was kind, gentle, almost pleading... but the eyes were as hard as granite and cold as ice.

[kitsuneflare88]

The man only looked at the old gentleman once he realized that he was, in fact, not running away like any sensible person would have done. No, this old-looking man was addressing him, drawing a blade and settling into a stance that suggested age and experience.

The Major regarded the proferred hand of mercy with interest, eyes not reflecting the arrogance so-common in people who think they have the upper hand. No, this one was steel and a focused stare, the air greasy with electricity. His stripes, the gold pocket watch, the way he held himself, this man was not only a state alchemist, but an officer. A military man - and judging from his age, no more than twenty, a promising one. A prodigy, perhaps?

He listened to the man's speech with interest! What a man! Major's hand crackled with electricity, almost as an after effect of "pulling the trigger", like the smoking gun so-fabled.

"Well that's new - and I applaud your courage, sir. But there are two considerations you've failed to comprehend" he said, smiling, but there was no mirth in it. His voice, again carried easily. His arm began to crackle.

"I'm not alone, for one thing." he said, and with no further cue, two chains shot up from the sticky ground between the seats and embedded into the balcony upon which the old man had stood not five minutes ago - where Run and Mai still were! With force that made the room coarse with sound and splintered wood like tindertwigs, the two chains lost all tension and tore the balcony asunder cleanly, sending it careening down at the old man's head, the Major's crackling hand calmly, but quickly drawing a pistol from its holster, enveloping the weapon in the crackling energy.

"Second" he said, carrying even over the din - there had to be something to that - "You're still too far away to threaten me." he said with matter-of-fact certainty that had daggers in it.

The old man had a half-second between when his hair stood on end and the young major pulled the trigger on his pistol. Propelled not only by black powder down a barrel, but down an electric charge, the incandescent slug of metal screamed through the air, curving just slightly, as if to make a point. It was aimed for a quick, clean death - so the man wouldn't have to be crushed by the balcony... at least that was how the major planned it, anyhow.

[kitsuneflare88]

Mai had a bad feeling about the balcony knowing that the instant her master had left they two would become free targets especially to bastards like the state alchemists. She pushed herself through the now vacant door frame thinking ahead as much as possible. Just before the chains cleaved through the balcony they had been on seconds before.

Mai saw that run was relatively unharmed though she definitely wasn't good off considering that she had been hit with a lightning strike. She sighed and looked at the open door. Panicking and knowing that they were in the open she pushed her hand on the ground and the door frame seemed to suddenly grow as if from a tree creating a really powerful barrier of iron wood to shield them booth from attacker on the stage for a few while she tended to run and possibly hide her somewhere in the theater.

She pulled one of her special cloths dipped in poultice and pressed it onto run, muttering that things would be alright and that her sensei would protect both of them. She felt that nothing could hurt them with him around, she wasn't exactly battle hardened so she had no idea about the other individual somewhere else in the theater. Her full attention on her friend feeling they were alright for the moment, letting her guard down while she treated run forgetting one of her sensei's key lessons.

[Raron]

A tingle, a half second, in his youth that would have been more then enough warning. He would have thrown up a wall that would have shattered the incoming projectile into nothingness and then gotten up there in half a moment to strange the alchemist with his own watch chain but he knew he couldn't move like that anymore he didn't have that reaction time... but he did have something he had learned since, artful. He could hear the breaking of the balcony but knew he couldn't take his eyes off the man in front of him and nor could he let that balcony crush him. Two bird with one stone.

Micheal's head lowered quickly as he fell to one knee, the bullet just passing over his head the metal of it parting his hair and grazing his skull, the broadsword in his hand twinkled briefly in the light and then as he thrust it down into the ground, through the wooden planks and into the earth beneath it various alchemical circles on it's surface shone for a moment and then dimmed as the wooden planks exploded from the upheaval beneath them. Stone spikes extended in a circle around Micheal, each as thick as a tree trunk and as they extended upwards the sword pulsed energy and spikes sprouted off from their sides, and again and again and again the sword pulsed, thinner and thinner spikes of stone going higher and higher until they were no more then pencil think. The falling balcony shattered the thinnest of them easily but as it hit more and more of these "branches" of stone it's decent slowed more and more, the branches below catcing broken pieces until finally the balcony ground a halt the broken pieces and the branches forming a 'tree' of stone and wood whose 'top' was a mere two feet above Micheal's standing height. He stood walking between the stone trunks without taking his eyes off the young man in front of him, his face impassive.

Truth be told that had taken alot out of Micheal, the instant calculations, the guessing of the weights and stresses involved but he couldn't take the chance the two were still up there and seeing as he wasn't hearing them above him as he walked out from under the 'tree' he guessed Mai had gotten Run off the balcony before it fell... inwardly Micheal sighed in relief, outwardly he gazed dispassionately at the Major.

"Two things you say?... well as for your one I am not impressed, you threaten that which is impotent to me... YOU SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT A HUNDRED!"

Micheal's gaze blazed with rage, if he had not caught that balcony, if Mai and run had not gotten off in time... They... they... In his mind eye the theatre dripped with blood.

"You come here, put her and my apprentice at risk and you think two are going to be enough? Your arrogance will cost you."

Despite his rage, despite his heart thundering in his chest, despite how tired he was from that lucky lucky transmutation he started to walk forward and a small grin crossed his face. He hoped this worked as he remembered it.

"As for your second point..."

Micheal hands did not blur with the speed of his youth but they did move fast, the broadsword was slammed into it's sheath and popping into his hand was the long sword, it's length gleamed over alchemical circles along one side but the reverse of the flat of the sword was rough, the of gears along the flat of the blade. In a smooth motion Micheal dragged it across the back of his sabre and sparks flew as he ground metal against metal, the circles on his long sword glowed and chairs in front of him burst into flame smoke raising from the burning cushions.

-Crap stupid stupid old man that is bigger then you wanted... crap crap... well don't let them see you sweat make use of it. You were not gonna leave this place in one piece anyways."

The sabre in his hand arced out and sketched a circle in the air before he slashed at the smoke and it came with the blade, as he spun the fire burned hotter as wind began to rush inside the building spinning the smoke around as well and then cloaked in smoke Micheal stabbed out with the sabre towards the stage and a cloud of smoke rushed forward closing on the stage as he himself ran as fast as he could in it's wake, the wind keeping the thick hot smoke low as it closed on the stage and then flying upwards in the smoke, a man shaped blur flung itself upwards into the smoke, straight up and towards the stage, blades held in each hand. As attacks lashed at it it absorbed them and landed on the stage with two hollow thunks. It was no man, it was but a coat with a pair of sheaths tied to the end of the sleeves. The smoke still billowed toward the stage and somewhere in it Micheal silently tried to catch his breath the smoke his only ally. He just had to get the the stage and he broke cover running the rest of the way, hoping against hope he didn't die this way.

[kitsuneflare88]

The short-haired blonde young man watched with goosebumps as the old man did something elegant... and difficult. My word, his rage must be something to respect if it could motivate the earth with that kind of force. But what would that have exacted from him? As an alchemist, he respected the powers neccesary to make stone pillars and spires that thick and that quickly, quickly enough to save the balcony, quickly enough to save his life.

An invoulentary shiver went up the Major's spine, and his poker face split into a big grin. What a man! What skill! When the man replied, he was on his own little cloud 9 - this was a man that fought in the last war, when he was a boy! This was one of the fabled monsters of Ishaval, a hero of the war.

A moment's uncertainty - but his research was extensive. He'd taken down one such man before, though he admittedly wasn't as skilled as this one, nor as brave. Gut instinct - stuff he'd learned to trust early on - told him caution. Without thinking too hard about it, the alchemist immediately drew his second pistol, and, without looking down, spread his stance a bit and grit his teeth, grinning widely. This was going to be a red day.

That aside, the Major focused intently on the rising clouds of smoke. When they surged toward the stage, he refused to move, refused to let his senses be decieved! Then he saw the glint of metal. Electricity arced up one arm, and he tore the oncoming figure in half cleanly with three well placed shots - head! Chest! Groin! Wait, tore him in half? A sheathe clattered to the ground at his feet, and he, flustered, kicked it aside! A trick! On instinct and reflex, he... shut his eyes?

A charge seared through the air, originating from the stage, from his boots, from the golden symbols etched and glowing into the ground. The lightning in the air went far, penetrating smoke and the stage as if they weren't there. His comrade was a level below, and already coming up - he could feel her a level down, through the floors - as if he were looking at her. HE could also feel metal, alchemical reactions, a man! Left! He leveled both his weapons at him, and his attention was conceived as a now-familiar prickling in the skin as hair stood on end. Then thunder rained down.

He squoze both triggers - once, twice, three times each, charges connecting the ends of his barrels to the old man, heart singing. Such courage! Even if he won, he would commend the man for a soldier's burial - nothing was too much for a man who would fight like that for what he felt was right... even if he was so dreadfully misplaced in his care.

[kitsuneflare88]

Mai kept helping run as she messed with the bandage tightening the Bandage and keeping it applied. As she pressed it, the poultice inside was flowing through the bandage into her injuries. Mai looked around and pulled run into a nearby room which happened to be an empty upper floor.

relieved mai began to prepare for battle just in case someone else was around. She knew the man that her master was fighting couldn't be the only person sent after them. She meeped to herself and began preparing some traps right near the upper part of the staircase.

It took her about 20 seconds of solid preperation but she finished the traps with ease making them impossible to descern unless you knew what they were and where they were.

She drew out her boken, and waited to see if someone would come up for them both. She hoped against hope that she wouldn't have to fight but if she did have to ohh well.

[Raron]

Damn it sucked getting old, when he was ten years younger and in better shape he would have already gotten next to that punk kid and beaten him to death with his own guns after force feeding him the bullets in his orifice of choice but he just wasn't the young guy he used to be ... His skin began to tingle again. His mind raced, why would his skin be tingling there is no way the kid should be able to see him through the smoke, he could barely see a few feet in front of him. But... but old man didn't get to be old man by being stupid. Maybe it was time to stop thinking what young him would do and use some of the brains he had gotten since young man died screaming in a fiber rich diet.

He let the doubts slide away as he slashed the broadsword slash downwards and forwards along the ground while he was still running. The blade parting the wood and scratching the concrete beneath and that was enough. The wood shattered as the ground beneath burst into motion that nature never intended of it. A spike of concrete shut forward and upwards, it parting the smoke as at a thirty five degree angle from the ground it raised over the smoke and above the stage. Micheal continued running, his heart pounding in his chest, his lungs screaming for air they were not getting, his side in agony as muscles unaccustomed to abuse were brought back into motion again after long dormancy.

Micheal was immediately glad for the spike he had raised as ahead he heard guns shots, three of them and two bullets collided with the spike he ran up the side of. The third though, the third tore through the muscles of his thigh, plowing it's way through soft tissue and out the other side. His leg exploded with a pain that was ignored. He was getting used to pain and the damage wasn't enough to keep him from moving but he know if he was in danger of bleeding out. The concern was tabled as the hands moved and swords were swapped. His run up the side of the spike as he burst from cover was a sight to see as he effortlessly took out his rapier and held the broadsword in his right hand. As he crested the spike he didn't hesitate. The blade glowed a light blue and the water around him started to get much drier. Water was pulled out of the air itself and the rapier stabbed forward. As it moved the gathering water swirled around it and hurled itself forward copying the blade's motion.

It was less a fountain and more a cannonball wide dragon of water. It opened it's mouth in a soundless rage as it shot towards the stage and fell short about five feet. The stage was damaged where the water hit, as if someone had hit it with a cannon ball but other then damaging the stage the landing dragon did something else though, it soaked the stage, splattering both the young man and the wood of the stage. Micheal stood upon the crest of the spike and sneered at the young man on stage as his chest burned, as it begged him to pant, to heave, to throw up or let it breath. He refused and his face was the redder for it. Instead he leapt and landed on the stage, a loud pop rang out. He knew that sound meant his back would be in absolute agony for three days. That was in the background though, The rapier zipped upwards, cutting the air from floor to stop pointing at the ceiling and the water at his feet in a two foot circle leapt away from him leaving the parts of the stage he was on bone dry, the wind warping from the sudden loss of water. and with that he brought it down, the thin blade parting air and coming to rest on the wet stage just outside the circle of dry. The large puddle exploded into motion. A hair then line of water shoot up and moved forward forming a very thin wave about six feet high. It zig zagged across the stage cutting into the wood about two inches as the blade shaped wave moved randomly. It had not path, no destination programmed in. It simple cris-crossed the stage, a deadly and random creation.

[Nemo]

The snake of air rippled across the water in a random, deadly pattern, whizzing and screaming through the air at the blonde-haired alchemist, soaked head to toe and crackling with shorted energy, pain streaking up and down his body even as it steamed. It stormed the stage, made a terrible roar as it entered the alchemical circle. The Major had to act fast.

--------------------------

Elsewhere, the world was swimming with stunned pain and the smell of burnt artificial fabric, merging just barely into the place where the lightning struck Run's chest. Yes... that was what was hurting, what stank so bad - SHE was hurting, it was her skin and hair that was burning! Run gasped out for the first time since she'd hit the doorway an indeterminate amount of time before then. She groaned and squirmed on the ground behind Mai, touching over the still-warm and painful place where it hurt the most.

The terrible pain wasn't so alien to her... no, Run was used to pain - she was good at hurting. She knew how to cope with pain, how to hold herself so it didn't hurt so bad - and for a good few moments as the stunned sensation of having her wind knocked out faded to yield to frantic gasps of air, she held her ear to the ground. There were sounds of panic, so like the sound of rain raging on a rooftop as people ran down the hall, filtering away from the stages, dwindling in number - even the doormen didn't stay behind. Only one person did. she knew that absence of sound, and peeked out of the door.

Only one person stood resolute in the stairwell, black, stringy hair hanging over one side of her face. Run's eyes widened when she saw this one... even if she was wearing a dress, even if she was in this... somehow sacred place, she was a terrible thing, visible clearly to Run from the bottom of a very bad day.

Run pushed herself up, and met the woman's only visible eye. As the sounds of panic faded into the street, that left the three of them in that place of dim light as the sounds of the battle on stage crashed and faded in the distance.

The woman in black lifted her hands out from her side a little, and two heavy chains slid from her sleeves, hitting the ground like great, heavy iron lashes with a clang.

"Come with me NOW, Five. If you're a good girl, now, I'll put in a good word for you... you know what will happen if you give me trouble now, pet." she said, very calmly, as the chains started to crackle with the beginning of an alchemical reaction.

Run scowled and pushed herself up on her one good knee and her hands, shuddering with pain, new and old, as she recalled... just what it was that would happen.

[kitsuneflare88]

Mai sighed to herself and watched as a woman came up the stairs she made a yanking motion right when the chains came uncoiling from the ground.

Two potted planters suddenly came to life in an explosion of sound. The first let off a heavy drug like spore, it was toxic to the human body much like a spiders venom, and caused a sleep like sensation. The second planter exploded in a wave of sound as suddenly the seemingly harmless petals turned into lethal blades. It was like a spike mine suddenly going off.

Mai moved in front of run stick held out in front of her, she adjusted her glasses and waited. Her legs appart and shoulder width the blade in front of her face in a typical swordsman stance. She waited tense knowing that this woman would be very upset at what she had done with her first traps.

She knew they were basic but she didn't want to destroy the whole building. She waited tensely wondering how in the world she was supposed to fight someone weilding a giant chain, they had the advantage of reach. Then again she was a terrain specialist so hopefully the advantage would be hers, though she doubted it considering that from the appearance was a state alchemist. "Damn." she cursed under her breath wondering how the blazing hell she was supposed to fight a major, or higher.