Fight! (II)

{You ever come back from vacation and found that two other departments have royally screwed your department over and stuffed its every orifice with inconveniences? Fun times... I hate big business practices in concept but at least they don't tend to give one department the responsibilities of three others with nothing to show for it.}

"Follow the others, Martel. It's time for a reunion, one I'm sure the Fuhrer will regret."

Martel hesitated, seeing the slowly healing damage in his torso from the boy next to him.

"And what about him?" She gestured with her chin.

"Ha, he got me good but it won't happen again. Besides, I think we can come to a deal when we get out of this. Now go." Greed was grinning pridefully the whole way for her assurance. Martel nodded before running after the rest of the Chimera/Ninja alliance.

"So, any idea what the Fuhrer wants with you?" Ling stood and readied his single sword in the direction of the hallway the man with a great amount of Chi was coming from.

"Oh, we go way back. Actually, we don't, I've never met the guy. But we're related, technically."

Ling cocked his head over to Greed and raised an eyebrow, who merely shrugged.

"You don't look or act like royalty?"

"I'm the king of everything I own, kid. Don't need no cape."

"Hmm... anyway, if I help you fend off the ruler of this nation, you'll tell me how to gain your immortality, right?"

"I can deal with this myself, for the record. And I'm not the one who made me immortal... the first or the second time," At this, Ling looked over to Greed like he was a damned treasure trove but was disappointed the next second. "But if you tell me how you're so powerful, I'll point you in the right direction."

Ling snorted. "We have a deal." He would tell them, but he wouldn't help them climb the painstaking journey that Drem assisted him on every step of the way.

In the hallways leading up to where the unlikely pair stood, Edward suddenly halted.

"What's wrong, young Edward?"

'That Chi... it's stronger than mine. And super pure, just like ours as well. Purer than anyone other than the Nightingales or Al that I've felt. Something is wrong, he can't be an experiment.'

Ed shook his head. "Nothing, let's move on," Ed preemptively took off his coat and transmuted the contents into a single thick square of fabric tied with string before placing it in his shirt pocket. He stretched his arms and bent down to stretch his legs a bit before moving forward with Bradley.

It wasn't long before the clicking of Ed's boots alerted the duo on the other side and they tensed for a confrontation. Ling's eyes beamed to the one with the most Chi immediately as they rounded the corner.

First came a middle-aged man with an eyepatch and two swords at his waist, another four at his rib height. Ling noted that he walked with the practiced grace and readiness of any advanced and hardened martial practitioner he had known. His Chi wasn't anything impressive to him, even by old Xing standards, but it was nothing to scoff at either.

Greed smirked and let out a toothy grin. Fuhrer Bradley. This guy would've really gotten the jump on him were it not for a certain warning from Mr. Nightingale. Who knew the leader of the country was also a homunculus? But he wasn't the same old Greed either.

Bradley leveled his uncovered eye at the two he saw, getting a strong martial artist vibe from the boy to Greed's side. What was even odder was that Greed seemed to have already sustained an injury, his carbon-colored shell making way for normal skin that was just repairing at the edges of a necrotic and green-pulsing wound.

'It's slow, but he is healing while his shield is up. According to Father, the balance between his regeneration and his 'Ultimate Shield' that his body had to keep was his weakness. This may be much harder than I thought if he can do both at once. The matrix of visible channels for his Philosopher's Stone energy has also changed from blue to red. I don't know how he did that or what it means. Another bad omen.'

Edward rounds the same bend, coming face to face with the strong Chi feeling. Ling and Ed lock eyes, confused at this outcome as the obvious experiment is to Ling's right and the obvious Fuhrer is to Ed's right.

"Fuhrer, which one is the experiment?"

"Monster, which one is the Fuhrer?" They both ask in hushed voices for verification. Bradley and Greed point to each other and Ed and Ling are left staring at each other oddly.

' ' The source of Chi I felt was a fucking kid?! ' '

Ed shakes his head and looks back at the guy covered in some kind of metal skin with blue lines drawn on him ebbing with blue energy. Ed glances at him longer than before, recognizing an odd feeling from him. Greed looks back at him and frowns just as deeply.

'That... that's the Storm Alchemist and disciple of Mr. Nightingale. I have two reasons not to touch that guy, one, because he can probably take me on, and two, because he's backed by Mr. fucking Nightingale.' Greed thought.

'If he is an experiment, he's one of Uncle's, not from Aerugo. Bradley must be lying. Or he's simply related to that Magic stuff he tried to show me earlier, but I swear he feels identical. I should try to see if there is a connection.'

Bradley checked them both with his Eye of the Heart, seeing their relationship was quick and not very grounded. Ling was likely the one who wounded Greed, and he didn't want to deal with someone who could do that helping Greed.

"Young man, you don't seem to be around here, but I can assure you if you side with that man, your welcome will no longer be warm."

Ling looked over briefly before looking back at the boy who he considered the tougher customer. "No one can have this monster's secrets but me," He threw down the gauntlet, igniting his sword with green flowing Chi. Ling wanted to test how much that automail could take before he sliced it apart. Ed smirked a little, deciding that he would have to take care of the expert while Bradley took care of the experiment. If Yuri wanted it to live, he didn't think it would go down easy anyway.

"It looks like we have picked our opponents. Please help when you are done, Edward," Bradley remarked as he drew his blades.

"It appears so-"

Ling lunged forward and arrived at Ed in a split second, his move not being captured by Bradley's uncovered eye much to his surprise. He knew it would happen thanks to the eye's modification, but still wouldn't be able to react.

To his greater surprise, Edward blocked the blow with his automail arm with ease and didn't even take a step back. Bradley nodded in approval and charged forward.

Greed raises his dukes and readies himself while Bradley who had already walked away from the other confrontation, moves his eyepatch out of the way.

"Ho? What kind of ability is-"

Like a blur, Bradley's speed increases to about the same level as Ling's and he arrives before Greed. Wrath goes low, aiming his left sword for a joust into Greed's affected wound and scores him instantly. Greed holds his other sword in his hand but gets ran through to the skin on his back which can't be penetrated on his wound.

Greed cries out in pain, cursing himself for already getting hit before snapping the sword that didn't hit him and trying to kick Wrath away. Wrath pulls his sword out and draws another in his other hand before moving to strike again. In a series of blows, Wrath tests every other area he could find on Greed's body with his blades while Greed did his best to protect that side of his abdomen, continually finding himself on the back foot.

'I only need to wait till I heal fully and the bastard won't be able to touch me.'

Even the blue lines flowing through him only gave the blades shallow burn marks on their surface, meaning the only way to hurt Greed now was that wound. Unluckily for Greed, not even the stab wound was healing normally. His lifeforce had just fought in a war against another invading Lifeforce and lost, his cells suffered genocide and the victors were still roaming in the form of green veins that were making sure it stayed dead for a while. It would be several more minutes before Ling's Chi stopped blocking Greed's own.

Wrath made Greed round a corner to avoid revealing his other eye to Ed, Greed was throwing punches and kicks wildly and missing on every occasion while awkwardly guarding the wound. Wrath was impatient, knowing that his only chance to wound him might slip away soon.

'Edward might have better luck cracking Greed's shell than I do, but I haven't tried his eyes yet.'

*BOOOOOM!*

Wrath was alarmed by the explosion that rattled the underground from just down the hallway, but he didn't avert his eyes.

'On second thought, I'll let them duke it out.'

"So, how's old dad doing?" Greed gave the same old confident and shit-eating grin to Wrath.

"No need to ask *CLANG!*, you'll meet him soon!"

"As if! *CLANG!* They should've sent Envy or Pride if they wanted me in, not some upstart who is already past his prime!"

Wrath spun in a bladed fury, using the edges to not only strike but to get between Greed's outstretched joints or behind his legs to unbalance him. Wrath spun his heel low to the ground and tripped Greed before lunging, burying his swords in one of Greed's eyes and the now half-sized wound.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Greed tried to kick Wrath aside, but he merely rolled forward. As he rolled, Wrath brilliantly used the carbon eyelid of his opponent to snap his sword at the tip and keep the edge he had stabbed buried in his eye and head. The sword he stabbed in his wound followed him and Wrath readied himself again with yet another sword.

Greed got up quickly, panting not from exertion but from pain. Blue lightning flared to try to regenerate the wound but was stopped by the obstruction.

"Ha...Ha... I guess dad didn't give you the crown for nothing." Greed attempted to reach into his eye socket to remove the lodged blade quickly, but Wrath reacted and flashed about in a flurry to keep him occupied.

"I earned that crown."

"HAHAHA! Earned?! You're a damned puppet just like the rest of us!" Greed couldn't help remarking while they danced back and forth.

"I'm the only puppet who had to fight for his position, welp!" Wrath spat the word puppet like it was venom.

"Oooooh, my apologies, mister promoted puppet. Hahaha!"

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Roa, Martel, and Dolcetto had led their team of rat-like chimera goons along with the foreigners down the monotone corridor, but Dolcetto's keen ears quickly picked up the rapid marching of boots and baited breaths.

Dolcetto used his sword to call the team to a halt, but several soldiers in blue military garb rounded the bend and kneeled, and stood in a formation. 8 machine guns were now pointed at them down the narrow hallway.

"Back uuuuuup!!!!" Dolcetto shouted in a panic. "FIRE!" He heard the call on the other side.

Dolcetto's pupils tightened as far as they could, he prepared his sword to clear a path and suffer a few bullet wounds on the way. Two thin cylinders made their way past his head by surprise, the hail of gunfire sounded for only a second before the soldiers retreated as they were trained.

One cylinder proved to be a smoke grenade, the other a regular one. Compact gunpowder blew apart a whole section of the hallway and killed several of the officers who didn't retreat fast enough.

Fu and Lan Fan leaped into the fray, past the smoke and round the bend they ran to take advantage of the enemy's disrupted momentum.

"Come on!" Dolcetto ushered his group forward and they joined the Xing warriors round the bend. They witnessed Lan Fan and Fu expertly taking hacking young men down and using the still living ones as human shields at times to move forward and not get shot. The surging Chimera gave the Xing less of a target on their backs and flooded any stragglers with knife wounds like a parade of rabid convicts. The Amestrians were retreating while firing and taking up positions with the ones further back for several minutes until someone intervened.

"Enough! Surrender quietly or suffer the wrath of the Armstrong family techniques, perfected over many generations!!!!"