Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Audigy Alchemist ❯ The Ring and the Stone ( Chapter 6 )

The Audigy Alchemist: Chapter 6

The Ring and the Stone

 

The next morning arrived at the Farrin household; Ed awoke to see Al sitting at the window, looking out upon the town.

“Morning Al.” Ed said yawning and stretching his arms.

“Good Morning brother.” Alphonse said looking at his brother. He had spent the night thinking about what Dane had said.

“What's the matter?” Ed said getting out of the bed.

“Oh! N-Nothing” Al said hiding his apprehension.

“Well we have a big day ahead of us so I'm going to get ready.” Ed got up, grabbed a book he had been reading last night and headed to the bathroom.

 

Upon arriving in the kitchen, they saw Dane drinking a glass of water.

“Hello!” Dane said in a very bright tone.

“Hey, are you cooking breakfast?” Ed asked looking at the stove.

“Not today, the wood in this house is dry so if I make a mistake we all go up in flames.” Dane replied cheerfully.

Creepy Ed and Al thought simultaneously.

“We're heading into town today to eat.” Dane said, putting his glass away.

“Really? Where?” Ed asked half paying attention to Dane and half to the book.

“You'll see,” Dane said “let's go” he said walking to the front door.

Dane locked the door and the three of them proceeded into the town. After a good ten minutes, they came upon a small out door café. Dane sat down at a corner table, Ed and Al followed suit. After a minute a beautiful young lady walked out, her hair a dark blond color, eyes a light brown. She had an apron on with some cooking utensils in the pockets.

“I didn't expect to see you sulking in your corner again Dane,” she said stopping at the table “and you brought company too.”

“Har-har.” Dane said looking her in the eye “you still entertain customers with that legendary wit?”

She scowled at Dane and said “Fine, I was going to give you some food on the house, but if you don't want it…” she turned to walk away.

“You win! You win!” Dane said putting his hands up to surrender grinning.

“That's better, now what'll you have.” She asked.

“Coffee and a bagle.” Dane said.

“And I'll have an order of pancakes.” Ed said putting down one of the table menus.

“What do you want?” She asked Al, smiling brightly.

“I'm not that hungry” Al said quickly, she eyed him with curiosity. “I don't eat breakfast” he said. Or any thing else for that matter he thought.

“Alright” she said. Heading to the kitchen.

“I've been meaning to ask you,” Ed said, putting the book down momentarily “how do you use alchemy? I don't see any transmutation circle.”

Dane took out the ring and handed it to Ed. “That's my transmutation circle. I made it by casting the ring in two parts, on the inner part I inscribed the symbols and used the outer part to cover it. If I were captured and all of my alchemic equipment taken, the ring would remain safe because it looks like a normal ring.”

“So you placed the circle inside the ring to avoid detection…brilliant” Ed said handing the ring back to Dane.

“Bingo!” Dane said smiling; he eyed the book Ed had been reading. “Enjoying the book?”

“It's amazing! Whoever wrote it knew a lot about the fundamental principals of alchemy. Some of these theories sound so crazy, yet this guy proves every single one with proof from publications by highly respectable alchemists, unfortunately it looks like chicken scratch.”

Dane laughed at the truth behind the comment. “What do think of his theory on using the body as an alchemic conduit?”

“It's tricky, but brilliant. As long as the user maintains a constant, even rate of transfer it should be safe.”

“That's what I thought too when I wrote it.”

“You wrote it?!” Ed said amazed

“Yes, I did.” Dane said smiling

“But I thought you were just interested in using alchemy for music?” Al said

“Yes I use this to repair, tune, and maintain the instruments.”

“How many books did you write?” Al asked.

“Enough, but I never intended to publish them, just keep and develop them until I perfected sound Alchemy.”

“What then?” Ed asked looking Dane in the eye with an indignant look. “So let's say you refine it to perfection, what about others who want to learn?”

Dane was taken aback.

“If you care about it so much, you need to let others learn it too. If you died and forgot to write one important thing in here, no one would be able to use your alchemy, it would be lost forever.”

“Well…” Dane said averting his gaze “I'm too lazy to try and finalize all of that gibberish I wrote.”

“You're preaching to the choir” The café girl interrupted, bringing Ed and Dane's food and drink. “Did you know he disappeared for a whole week and the next time we saw him, he said he just got up from taking a nap. AN ENTIRE WEEK!” She pulled a large wooden ladle out of nowhere and whacked Dane upside the head.

Asleep for a whole week?! Al thought.

“Is there something wrong with you?” Ed asked.

“Aside from the headache I have right now, I don't think so.” Dane said rubbing the back of his head.

The café girl sat down at the table with them “I wish I could go with you. You two must have had some amazing adventures with Dane.” She said looking at the clouds. “I remember when we were young, we used to go every where and do anything we could think of.” She sighed “I miss those days.”

“Well we all grow up, maybe this time I can take you with me this time.” Dane said taking a sip of his coffee.

“I still don't get why I couldn't go with you in the first place.” She said getting all huffy.

“I was being hunted; if I had taken you with me and they caught us we would both be dead right now. I will now allow that to happen.” Dane said then took another sip of coffee.

“I know, I know.” She said rolling her eyes “But we would have been ok if you taught me alchemy.”

“Alchemy isn't a weapon.” Ed and Dane said at the same time. Dane look at Ed and Ed continued.

“We may use it for self defense and even kill with it, but those are mutilations of the great craft.” Ed said like some charismatic leader on a podium with a dramatic backdrop.

“Couldn't have put it better myself” Dane said, smiling and taking another sip of coffee. “When I know you'll be safe I'll bring you.”

She stood up and shouted “Don't you see, that's why I want to come with you! I know, whenever I'm in danger you'll be there and together we'll figure a way out of it!”

Dane put his coffee cup on the table and looked up at her; all three of them could see a great weariness in his eyes. He looked like a different person, she took a step back and gasped. The Elric brothers didn't know what to think.

Did we help contribute to that look in his eyes? Al thought.

“I'm sorry…please wait…just a little longer” Dane said, his normally bright and cheery eves seemed to reflect almost no light.

“Alright.” She said holding back a tear. “Just a little longer.” She said and went back into the shop.

The rest of breakfast went with very little noise. When they finished and stood to leave, she ran out to stop them. “Here” she said putting something in his hand, then she turned and went back inside crying.

Dane looked at the object she gave him and put in his breast pocket. He took a deep breath and said “Let's go” he was back to his normal cheery self.

They headed to the south of the town, into some large hills, as they left the town Dane said “I remember there being some kind of alchemic research lab around here. I don't remember if it has anything to do with what you two are looking for, but we'll take a look.”

They went on for an hour or so longer before stopping. “You aren't lost, are you?” Ed said looking at Dane skeptically.

“No, no, we're where we need to be.” He said looking around. “Here we are.” He said moving some brush out of the way. Ed and Al went to see what Dane was talking about.

There was a very thick steel door in the ground and in the middle was a round valve wheel. It was rusted.

“Is it supposed to be that rusted?” Al said looking at it.

“No…I don't think so…” Dane said.

“Well let's open it up.” Ed said, reaching for it, the others followed suit. All together they put their full force into it, but the valve was rusted shut. “Fine, let's do it the hard way.” Ed clapped his hands together and placed them on the door. It was transmuted into three garden gnomes in his likeness. Looking inside all they could see was a ladder, it's legs disappeared into the darkness.

Ed, Al, and Dane looked apprehensive. “one of us needs to go down there.” Dane said.

“Not me.” Ed said.

“Not me Dane said.

They both looked at Al who was still trying to look down the hole.

Moments later Al was being forced to climb down the stairs with very logical arguments. Safe my foot. Al though to himself, I'm the most frightened of them all why should I…His train of thought continued like this for the duration of the ladder. When he got to the bottom, he looked up and realized that it was only 25 ft. at the most. There was enough light from the opening to find his way around. He felt the wall and following the wall he came upon another door, next to the door was a switch. Al flipped it and lights turned on lining the passage way, he went back to the ladder and called up to Ed and Dane “It's safe, you can come down now!”

A minute later, Ed and Dane were down there, looking at the door, this time there was no valve, no knob, nothing, except on the wall next to the door was a set of mechanical switches.

“I don't care to play any more games” Ed said clapping his hands together.

“Wait.” Dane said grabbing Ed's wrist. “I don't think we should do that.”

“Why not?” Ed said placing is hand on a wall and grounding out the alchemic reaction he had started.

“That valve on the first door had only one purpose, to keep the door locked. I would imagine these levers do more than that.” Dane looked at the levers intensely “They probably serve two functions; one: the key to unlock the door, and two: make it safe for us to enter. No doubt this place is booby trapped. Plug your ears.”

Ed plugged his ears (Al too out of old habit of being human). Dane put on his ring, closed his eyes, and concentrated. He held his left fist in his right hand (left hand has the ring) and gathered his strength. Snapping his arm back, he punched the wall of rock next to the panel. A thunderous sound echoed through the chamber, Ed and Al were knocked off their feet by the force of the wave.

“What the hell was that?!” Ed shouted at Dane, getting him self back on his feet.

Dane slowly opened his eyes and looked at Ed, “A sonogram, I was able to see through the wall by using the reflections of sound to create an image in my imagination of where all the wires lead.”

“What does all that mean?” Al asked.

“It means I was right, this place is booby trapped, only one switch opens the door, the others activate traps. Luck for us I know which one is the correct.” Dane said moving his hand to the switches, he flipped one and they could hear locks slide out of place and the door creaked open.

Upon entering, they noticed they were in a dimly lit chamber; Dane looked around and found a light switch. When the lights came on, they saw something they never expected. The walls were lined with chalk boards, on the floor were hundreds of pillars filled with the red liquid (when refined made the stone). On the other side of the room was a doorway, the door was open and there was light coming from within. The three made their way towards the door and what they saw was amazing.

There were seven people sitting at a table and at the head of the table was Corry Raymon. With out looking up he said “welcome to my lab gentlemen.”

Dane leaned his case against the wall and was beside himself with rage. “How…” was all he could manage.

“You've been gone ten years,” he said standing up and facing them “a lot changes in that time. Most people work for me to make their lives easier, you would be surprised how many are under my command.”

“We're `gonna change that!” Ed said angrily. “People who manipulate the law for their own benefit shouldn't lead.”

“Yeah!” Al said piping in his agreement.

“How touching,” Corry said clapping his hands slowly, no one else joined “the ragtag team of alchemists are going to capture the evil crime lord, justice will prevail, and all that good crap.” He said mockingly “Well this is the real world, good doesn't always win. Time for you to learn that the hard way.” He clapped his hands twice, and all the people in the chairs stood up. All were wearing transmutation circles, all were alchemists. “Kill them.” Corry said.

All the alchemists began to use their abilities to try to kill the Elrics and Dane. Ed transmuted his blade and he and Al charged into the brawl. Dane took a tuning fork out of his pocket, but it was knocked out of his hand by Corry. They stood face to face like a couple of gun slingers, Dane took out a large piece of reed and put it in his mouth like a cigarette.

Meanwhile, Ed and Al were going into an all out brawl with the 6 alchemists. They weren't state alchemists, but they were powerful. They all manipulated elements; Earth, Fire, metal, water, wind, and wood, each created a weapon out of his element and attacked the Elric brothers with it. The water elemental tried to stab Al with a spear of ice, but the spear bounced off his armor and Al knocked him out with a left hook to the jaw. Ed had his hand tied dealing with the metal elemental, every time they got close, the elemental would try to transmute his blade. Ed caught him between the legs with his metal foot.

“Ready?” Corry asked, cracking his knuckles.

“Always was.” Dane said stretching his neck.

They moved at the same time, Corry had a hidden pair of brass knuckles that hit his stomach and Dane's palm made contact with Corry's breastbone. The ring glowed faintly and there was a boom and a crack. Corry stumbled backwards and coughed up blood.

“I see this fight is going to be a little one sided.” Corry said wiping the blood off his face. “You also cracked by ribs.” He said feeling his chest. “I guess we'll have to even the odds.” He said picking up an object from the table, it was a pocket trumpet.

He couldn't have…Dane thought as Corry put the tiny trumpet to his lips. Corry blew into it and a shock wave came flying Danes way, he dodged and the earth elemental took the hit (he was out of commission). Shit! Dane thought. He stole my research and has fouled it up for his own usage.

“You stole…you stole…” Dane said, loosing his self control. Corry put the pocket trumpet to his lips again. “You…” Dane said and Corry put all he could into one blast. Dane held up his hand and nullified the shockwave. Corry's eyes widened on shock.

“You have taken what is most sacred to me and drenched it in the blood of the innocent.” Dane said, his eyes fully opened. “Elric brothers, leave this place.”

Ed and Al protested.

“NOW!” Dane shouted.

Ed considered it for a moment then ran for it, Al close behind.

“It ends now.” Dane said, he pointed as the wall just above the case and using the ambient sound created a concussion wave that knocked it through the air to Dane. The case landed on the floor with a CLUNK and the latches snapped open. Dane took out the reed in his mouth and stamped his foot on the ground. Using the sound created by the stamp, he made another concussion wave and launched an instrument into the air. It was about four feet long and shaped like a saxophone. It was his Bass Clarinet.

Corry knew that instrument, it was the one Dane used to play on many years ago, Dane grabbed it in mid air and slapped the reed on the mouth piece. Corry took a step back in fear, “KILL HIM!” He shouted and the remaining elementals tried to jump Dane.

Dane turned, took a breath and blew into the mouthpiece. A melodious sound came from the bell. It gave everyone pause, even the Elric brothers stopped to see where the sound was coming from. They saw Dane playing an instrument they had never seen before, then the whole facility started to rumble. They could see a shock wave emit from the instrument towards the elemental alchemists and their limbs bent in ways normal ones don't. Every bone in each of their limbs were shattered. They all fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Dane turned to Corry, put down all the keys, took a deep breath, and blew. A sound almost like a fog horn came from the instrument, the room shook again this time, it began to collapse. The Elrics knew better than to stay in a collapsing underground base, so they turned and ran for the exit.

Dane put the instrument back in the case; he looked at Corry who was hit so hard by the wave that he made his own human shaped crater in the wall. “Good bye, Corry.” He said then left, case in hand.

Meanwhile, Ed and Al climbed out of the hole and looked down.

“He doesn't have long.” Ed said “That place is going to collapse any moment.”

They looked down the hole and could just barely see Dane, he just got to the ladder.

“Hurry up.” Al shouted into the hole.

“I can't go any faster!” Dane called back.

The whole place started to collapse, “Damnit!” Ed cursed. he clapped his hands and slapped them to the ground. From the Floor of the hole, a pillar of rock came up and pushed Dane to the surface, like an elevator. “You're lucky,” He said complacently “if you had been a second later, we might not have been able to get you out in time.”

“Sorry.” Dane said with a sad smile on his face.

“It's no problem.” Ed said giving his usual maverick smile.

“Not that,” Dane said, leaning against the open door. “the stone, those glass containers held the substance the philosopher's stone is made of. I know you've been looking for it and this was your chance to get it.”

Ed sighed and looked away, “Its alright,” he said “we'll find another way.”

“That's right” Al said, chiming in “we always find a way, don't worry about it.”

“Besides,” Ed said putting that maverick smile back on, we need to get the military involved in cleaning up this organized crime mess.”

Dane looked at Ed and nodded “I think that will be the best plan of action.”

The Elrics and Dane returned to the village wherein they went directly to Mr. Stringfellow's house.

“What happened?” Mr. Sringfellow asked as they sat down in the dining room. “I heard some thing in the hills collapse earlier today.”

“It was me.” Dane said flatly “Corry escaped and we discovered him in an alchemic research facility. He even used my alchemy to try to kill me.”

“Most troubling,” Mr. Stringfellow said “it seems he had more employees than we expected.”

“Yes, I expect there to be a new boss soon, so we called in the military, they will be here in two days.”

Mr. Srtingfellow sighed heavily “As much as I hat to get them involved, I think its for the best. At least until we re-establish a non-corrupted police force.”

“We have to return to central to give our reports. So we'll be gone for about six weeks, after that…” Dane leaned back in the chair “after that-“

“You'll come back!” someone said from the shadows, the person entered the room, it was the girl from the shop that morning.

“Actually,” Dane said with a sly smile “I was thinking of heading east.” The girl opened her mouth to start chewing him out, but Dane spoke first “That is, as long as you're still up for an adventure.”

She closed her mouth, smiled and said “depends, are you going to pull the stunts you did when we were younger?”

“Who knows,” Dane said standing and stretching “I might.” She smiled brightly, ran up and hugged Dane tightly.

When she let go, she hugged both Ed and Al, giving both of them a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you…” she said crying “Thank you for bringing him home to me.”

Mr. Stringfellow smiled those two deserve to have some time to be together after what they've endured for these ten long years he thought to himself. “When do you have to leave?”

“Tomorrow morning at 10” Dane said, with a broad smile

“WHAT?!” the girl shouted. “I've got to pack!” and with that she ran out the front door.

“PACK LIGHT!” Dane shouted after her as he went to close the door. “Aw man, now I'm `gonna have to carry her luggage too…”

Ed, Al, and Mr. Stringfellow laughed.

 

Yay I'm finally done with this chapter.

Well…it looks like Dane finaly got rid of The crime lord Corry Raymon, all that's left is to make the final report to Central and Dane's adventure with the Elric brothers is over.

 

What will happen in the final Chapter?

 

Stay tuned for the release of Ch. 7, the final installment in the Audigy Alchemist series!

 

*Who knows, maybe there'll be something crazy O.o *