[FIN]Kimblee & Co. play Secret Squirrel

[Zolf J Kimblee]

Zolf wandered through the desert, muttering curses every time he had to hitch up his pants. He finally reached a set of foot prints...Several pairs of footprints. Their own. The sands had shifted a bit, winds erasing most of them from the HQ to this point.

Walking further, he happened upon a familiar sight...his belt! He cried out in joy (and relief!), stooping to pull the hidden parts from out of the sand. He pulled it through the loops, happy he could walk faster now.

Now that he wasn't distracted with drooping drawers, he turned his mind to other things. He shielded his eyes and gazed up. No bird in sight. Well....he was bound to run into the homunculus sooner or later, so he wasn't worried too much. He was just impatient to get on with the business of blowing up the false prophet's temple. He chuckled and rubbed his palms together in anticipation.

He wondered if the commissary had delivered his 'small tokens of affection' to Sheska yet. He had regrets about his impulsive kiss now, as he sipped from the canteen. "Real smart, jackass," he said aloud to the dessert wind, "beat a woman up, hog tie her and strip her of her weapons...yeah, that's really endearing." He wished the canteen were full of whiskey instead. Not helpful for much but self pity, but all the same...

In another sweaty and sun-scorched hour, the town of Lior came into view on the horizon. He sighed in relief and picked up his pace.

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Bido had followed the little bunch all the way through the desert. And he had to admit following the mad bomber alchemist had proofed itself just as interesting as he had expected it would.

First out of nowhere a weird assassin girl had jumped them. He hadn’t been able to hear the complete conversations seeing he had been on such a big distance, but it hadn’t stopped him from seeing the action. It had been quite a while he had seen any action like this. In the Nest it had only been occasional little fights or such, and once a thing with this other homunculus but Bido had quite missed that one. The little chimera might not be too much of a fighter himself but watching them could be quite interesting.

The girl however had quickly been controlled by Kimblee (though the alchemists idea of belt bondage seemed rather a bad one afterwards). Not too much to his surprise eventually Kimblee had leaded them to a military HQ. The chimera had decided to draw his limit there as he rather avoid any soldiers so instead he decided to wait a little and sit in the sun of the desert, not minding the heat at all.

However after a while he had decided that it had taken long enough and he had been walking back to the city of Lior. He had been taking an alternative road, to be able to walk in the sun without his cap up a little longer when he noticed someone else who was making his way to Lior. He grinned amused when he had noticed who it was.

Bido had decided to try again to get a decent conversation with the alchemist as he caught up with the man an stood beside him amused in no time.
“You’re doing weird things these days Zolf.” The small lizard chimera announced his present.

[amouri]

Barry followed Jean, glancing at the many different fruits.
Most of them looked extremely mouthwatering, others juts looked plain odd.
He sighed inwardly. His basic instincts were to reach out, to touch the fruit, to feel it.
His mind was guessing what the fruit COULD taste like, based on the colours and shapes of them.
But feel and taste were not available to him, he had to base his thoughts on visual gatherings only.
It frustrated him slightly, but though the years he had learned just to be apathetic about it, to pretend he didn't care.

After some time Havoc announced their leave, and he followed in silence.
He noticed with amusement that Riza seemed to be in her own thoughts, absentminded.
He would have smiled, wondering to himself what she might be day-dreaming about.

[aspiredeathe]

Running a hand through his hair, Jean let out a sigh.
"All right, I'm not a genius, but even I can see that something's going on here. Ha- Riza.."He managed to correct himself in time, a quick glance around him to see if anyone noticed "We can't operate properly if you can't keep your mind to the job." He had to speak low, in case they were overheard, as his choice of words would quite make their reason for being here obvious.

He didn't want to single out his friend, but it was the truth, a team worked with everyone, not just when people felt like adding their 2 cents. That and he didn't want to listen to Kimblee going on about how he failed such a simple job.
Not that it was easy.
It was obvious that he and Riza weren't from around here. And while everyone stayed polite to the 'tourists', they still didn't trust them.

[velinda]

((Gomen nasai! Work's a bitch for this... Lots of happenings, I see.))

Roze had been following this whole time, watching from a distance, never saying anything to the girl who had showed up out of nowhere. It seemed that "Jay" had never thought twice about the bird, so she never mentioned it agian. However, she found out that they had headed back to the HQ, where the man had been adressed as "Kimblee," not "Jay," which got her thinking. She thought she knew the name, but she didn't know quite where. Even when they wanted to invade the temple of Leto, she had stayed silent. She didn't want to upset anyone, or show which allegience she had been aligned with.

When Jay had walked back to Lior, she finally spoke up. "Jay... or is it Kimblee... or Zolf? You know... if you want to invade Leto's structure... I could be helpful, or be a hinderence." She didn't know whether or not to say what she did, but the words had been spoken now, and she couldn't take them back. It was up to Jay now to interepret what she said how he wanted to... but then, another... thing appeared to them, talking to Kimblee like they were best pals. She watched the thing, and smiled toward it. "Umm... ohaiyo... I'm Roze Thomas. It's nice to meet you..." She extended her hand to him, waiting for him to either deny or shake her hand. It was his choice, really.

[masterwarlord]

Envy shrugged slightly at Wrath. "Can't say I can relate there. I have parents, but I'd sooner tear them apart then make a touching reunion with them.". Envy clenched his fist as he thought of Hohenheim and Dante, but forced himself to get past it quickly, letting out a sigh. "While I'd love to stay and chat, I've got work to do. Just make sure you aren't in Lior when it gets transmuted, kay? Not unless you want your stones added to mine, anyway.".

Envy turned into a bird and flew off yet again. . .He briefly considered if Wrath's stones would be more useful then the homunculus himself, but he quickly dismissed the thought, not wanting to kill him, and seeing he'd shown some actual intelligence there was no reason to. . .It was mainly just Envy's addiction to the stones that wanted to consume Wrath. After you were on the corrupted things for 400 years, they really started to get to your head.

Envy flew off after Kimblee as he entered the millitary base and waited outside for his return, but quickly lost interest, becoming too bored to just casually wait outside forever. By the time he finally came back out, Envy had dozed off into a nap. Upon waking up, he'd already made a good distance back into the desert towards Lior. Envy smacked his wing on his head, then let out a sigh and flew off after him. He'd have to change into his normal form in the middle of the desert where he couldn't be seen and catch up. . .

And that's exactly what he did, having to sprint slightly to catch up to him. Envy cursed his impatience back at the millitary base. . .By the time he finally caught up to Kimblee, he was almost to Lior, and talking with one of Greed's chimeras. Putting his hands on his knees and panting slightly upon getting to him, Envy looked up at him in an annoyed fashion. "You're a hard man to track down, Kimblee. . .Sorry for showing up so late for the party, but better late then never, right? Everything's prepared. . .Lior's ready to drown in a pool of blood. You get to have the honors.". Envy smirked and chuckled.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

He made a pit stop to catch his breath before the last leg of the trek across the sand. Roze had been very quiet the whole way. And now that she spoke up, he raised his brow.

"You're a pretty gutsy gal to suggest you could be a hindrance you know." he said without too much concern. "You've seen first hand how I handle people who get in my way." "We're alone out here," he continued, "I could kill you if I had a mind to." He gave her a regretful look.

"Look," he said finally, "This Cornello guy...he ain't what he appears to be. He's duping all his believers and living like a king as the money pours in. Why don't you help out? You're awfully nice and pretty. You could have a long happy life ahead, you know?"

Just then Bido appeared and spoke up. He gave a startled shout and turned to face him. The chimera was made for the dessert, so it didn't surprise him that he'd been caught unprepared by him again. "Bido, I swear! One of these days I'm gonna accidentally fry you into a nice crispy salamander." and as an afterthought he added, "Lately? My whole life is made of weird, Bido."

Then Envy popped up. He sighed and ran his palm across his forehead. "Well," he said with a grin, "gangs all here." "Me?!" he added with a chuckle, "You must be losing your touch, Envy. Seems everyone but you is finding me these days." he answered, indicating Roze and Bido.

He told Bido and Roze to stay put, and motioned Envy aside, going several paces out of hearing distance downwind. "Look...this girl said she might be able to help. I'm not sure I trust her, but if she could...yeah, it might help." he grinned wider and went on, "Here's an interesting tidbit...Frank Archer seems to have plans of his own. He wants Cornellos head on a pig pole. Is the real guy even around anymore, or did you dispatch him?"

[syradarkangelle]

Wrath looked at him,and thought the green haired Homunculi would love parents if his mom had been Izumi, "Yeah,I heard dante refer to you as her boy or son once before, personally she has no motherly instincts." Wrath ran a hand through his hair,"When are you going to do this,I am gonna hang around but I need to know whent o leave,like you said i need to be out of here."

After he watched Envy fly off,he went back to acting unintelligent,but inside a sinister smile was breaking across the innocent looking face.
He and Envy had actually had a little conversation,mostly Envy was making remarks about how useless he was. This proved to Wrath,he was doing something right if he had Envy fooled till he revealed his real standing.

[masterwarlord]

Envy sighed. "Sorry, I can't give the old buzzard to ya. Gluttony already ate him a long while back. Besides, he can't die. We need his identity to make people think that the destruction of Lior is their little "rapture". That's gonna be the explanation for how the whole city vanished off the map overnight, seeing I'm trying to not draw attention to myself here."

[archer]

"My dear, I am not going, and will unlikely, ever send you there. No, if you ever became such a liability, I'd merely have you shot." Spoke Archer bluntly. Why disguise the obvious. "I find your abilities...An entertaining thing. As you overheard, there is the Priest in this town- A man by the name of Cornello who's been rallying the people within this town. I've grown tired of his existence." Anyone who challenged the authority of the stage government would be eliminated- Such was one belief held. "That is why I am here, in Lior. But, to answer your question...I'd like to employ you, not arrest."

People often underestimated the power of the head of intelligence. Oh true, he could not alter the world directly, using alchemy to create wonders of art and destruction- But he could use them. Kimblee, despite his nature, had been accepted by the higher ups after Frank had put a good word for him. For this "Princess", he could do the same. "I offer you the position of State Alchemist- To rid yourself of the enemy of the government, to obtain a freedom oppression...And to enact in time, revenge for your people." All done in a theatrical manner, to encourage the mood. "Will you accept my offer? If so...Then you will become part of it- That is, the quelling of Lior."

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Bido cursed his uncarefulness as he noticed Rose. He hadn’t paid any attention to her earlier. As he saw her he pulled his cap (of his new cloths) back up. “Ummm hay.” He said as he looked a bit doubtful at the girl. “Bido.” He introduced himself though didn’t took her hand. It wasn’t that he wanted to be rude but he found it wiser not to get too close to the girl. Luckely he had decided to hide his tail earlier, so that was one thing less to worry about. The girl really had something strange, she had offered to help invade the temple in her own city, she really didn’t knew what she was getting herself into. As the homunculus Envy appeared Bido was even more convinced that whatever was going to happen here would involve blood and lots of deads as well probably. But none of it was his business anyway, he was only here for the armour person and the little chimera had no intention to get involved with the desert people.

Bido looked at Kimblee as he gave a little cry of surprise. The gecko chimera frowned at the ‘friendly warning’. “I’d rather you not really.” He said. A crispy salamander didn’t sound too good to him. At the comment about the alchemists his entire life being weird Bido chuckled.

“You stand out enough.” Bido noted innocently on how easy Kimblee seemed to be track. “Beside you smell a bit like sulfur.” He muttered after it before Kimblee motioned Envy aside for a little private conversation.

Though Bido’s hearing wasn’t as good Dorochette’s (who’s was remarkable), but he could still catch up little parts of the conversation. However he didn’t comment on it, it wasn’t in his interest. But it did convince Bido that Kimblee very probably knew something about the armour person.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

"Well," he pondered, scratching his head, "I gotta give Frank something." Then he chuckled.

"Say...you by any chance wouldn't be able to, you know, transform yourself into a 'bloody' version of just Cornello's head, would you?"

He thought the idea amusing. Envy disguised as Cornello's head. He could put him in a bag and dump it on Frank's desk. Then that would be that, for at least Frank. The citizens of Lior didn't need to know. He could tell Frank they'd found a body double to fill in for his absence, which Envy would be, of course.

"You know, you'd come in handy for all manner of things, Envy." he added, "You could miniaturize yourself and I could carry you in my T-shirt pocket." It was more a joke than anything. He knew Envy could simply be a fly on the wall of any room where private conversations were being held.

[masterwarlord]

Envy sighed yet again. . .He'd probably need to go along with this before Kimblee would drown Lior in its' own blood. "You underestimate me. Observe." Envy said casually. He turned his arm into a blade and his head into Cornello's, then proceeded to decapitate himself and grew back his normal head back in it's place. He extended out his hand to offer Kimblee the head. "Nothing I haven't done before. . .But I'd prefer it if you went back to good old Archer after the transmutation was done. Sides, you run less of a risk of him figuring out that way if you give him Cornello's head after the final time I use his form, no? So can we proceed?".

[rizahawkeye]

Riza glanced at Jean.
She didn't know where to go from here... Kimblee hadn't given them many details of the mission, and she found herself at a loss.
She'd focus from now on, but she wished she had more details...
The Colonel never left her in the dark, unless he didn't have information himself.

[syradarkangelle]

She looked at Frank,as she listened to him," You want to employ me to help Kimblee with this priest guy." She tapped her chin for a second,as if she would think it over.

" Would they not want me to take the State Alchemist test,or are you going to say you administered it in the field. I have taught myself everything I know since I was ten. Plus,I have to wait for the crimson alchemist to deactivate what he put inside me or wired into my system,I am not sure of the right wording," sghe said,as she started laughing,"though Kimblee face with me being a state alchemist would be priceless. I accept your offer,but I will have to be briefed on what exactly the mission is to the fullest detailed,and will i get to wear my own clothes or do i have to wear the uniform."

She undid the braids as she was talking to him,as she let her white blond hair fall down to her knee level,the hair was slightly waving due to the braids,it would not remain down long she would style it a different way shortly," On another note,do you happen to have a shower room here,I would like to wash out my hair."

Maybe she would meet a guy,working in the state alchemist that would find her personality attractive and not what her bodt offered,though she tried to use it to her advantage,she felt quite the opposite. She always believed what she said about people,even if it was not,her life after her parents death,started her Conspiracy theories within the government.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

[My posts wont be as regular, my computer took a shit on me again. This time I'm pretty sure it is the power supply. *sighs*]

He stood there, holding the head and tossing it in his hands like a soccer ball before he finally said something, "Yeah, well I don't have much use for this thing now. By the time all this is over, it wont be recognizable."

He stooped to the ground and clapped his hands together and blew a two foot hole into the harder part of the sand. He tossed the head in and pushed the sand back over it. " 'fraid your gonna have to do an encore of your little trick." He looked up at Envy and snickered, brushed the sand off his palms and stood. "Gotta say...that's a pretty nifty trick." he sighed and turned his head toward the others. "Don't know what I'm gonna do about her," he said, indicating Roze. Bido he wasn't worried about. Bido knew what homunculi were capable of, same as he did. "Think you could stash her somewhere where she can't open her mouth to the wrong person?"

As much as he hated the idea, she'd have to be 'accosted' and tucked away somewhere. Envy was probably wondering why he didn't just dispatch her. How could she help, really? He shrugged. He was simply too tired to care one way or the other. "Dunno...I guess I'm ready as I'll ever be."

[Dorochet [Bido]]

(Awww too bad. D8 Stupid pc's. )

[aspiredeathe]

((Hey, I'm going on holiday in a few hours, so I won't be posting for..a week, if it goes well anyway xD
Feel free to move Jean about to keep the thread going.
I'll probably ask someone for an update when I get back about what's hapened
So consider yourselves warned xD
Try not to have too much fun without me =3))

[archer]

Archer nodded, the gist seeming to have gotten through to the girl. "I trust that your capable- No test, save perhaps that of...Trust, need be administered." Whom's trust, his or hers, was up to debate "Yes, you are correct...I will have Kimblee, assuming you have accepted my offer, remove his alchemy from you." This was going smoother then he had believed. Perhaps this Princess would be less rigid then her captor. One could only hope so. "Of course- I am the head of intelligence. You will know anything needed. As for clothing, we provide, but besides a state watch, you will not require anything on your person." Only two kinds of people could have state alchemist watches- Those who were them, or those capable of killing them. In both cases, it would be better not to question such individuals. Politely patient was Frank, for the rewards were satisfyingly worth any time spent.

"I believe there is one on the upper floors- Ask someone for directions if needed." Assuming she wasn't eager to kill them, like a certain destruction craving mad man he knew, the men knowing of her would not be an issue. The Crimson Princess was now his to command. With the two Crimson Alchemists, Archer would not simply promise them- He would act on it. The Fuhrer will be named anew. This world put worth not in those who merely seeked glory, but those who were able to reach out and take it. Archer's arm was growing longer each day...

[rizahawkeye]

Sheska just watched, waiting for another order from her superior officer.

Riza walked beside Jean and Barry.
"Where are we to go from here?" she inquired, glancing at either of them for an answer.