[FIN]Kimblee & Co. play Secret Squirrel

[masterwarlord]

Envy watched Kimblee and Barry’s excruciating killings of all the guards, only assisting when necessary or attacking guards who specifically came to attack him. He was enjoying the show. . .Seeing two of the best people in the business at work. Surprisingly, he –did- begin to cringe slightly when they began to get into the more gore-ish stuff. . .Sure. He enjoyed killing, but not as much as he used to. He wasn’t an absolute psycho like these guys. He’d still managed to keep his sanity over the years. . .Although the evil influence of his Philosopher’s Stones were the main thing still keeping it in him. He certainly wasn’t going to let go of it entirely any time soon. . .If he didn’t want to become like these guys, though, he’d have to be extremely careful to not like the philosopher’s stone he was about to devour overtake him. Perhaps he’d actually save a bit of it for Wrath so he wouldn’t be taking as much a risk with his sanity.

Of course, he didn’t want Kimblee or Barry to think he was going soft on em, though, so once the cultists were down he hastily came over to where they were operating on the guard. ”Heh. Pretty creative. . .Gotta make sure the thing actually works.”. He turned specifically down to look at the guard. ”C’mon. What’s wrong? Aren’t you gonna go up to be with Leto once you die here? You should be glad!”. He chuckled slightly, but it was half hearted and faded away pretty quickly. He felt ever so slightly guilty as he looked down at the guy. Sure, Dante would be killing all these people anyway if he didn’t, but there was no need for him to of sic-ed two professional serial killers on em instead of just turning into Cornello and dismissing them. Ah well. Not like there was much that could be done about it now. If he was developing a conscience, it still was certainly in it’s early stages, and the philosopher stone he was gonna devour wouldn’t do much about it. Still, it’d be a net gain for the world if he killed the bitch, right?

Envy was going a bit too deep into thought before he realized that he had to get the hell out of the place, getting left behind with the others. He frantically ran off after them, hating himself for letting his thoughts drift at a time like this. He didn’t utter any cries asking for them to wait for him – he doubted Kimblee would mind if he was used up in the transmutation, seeing the stone would be all his then and he’d contribute his stones within himself to the transmutation to boot.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

When they finally found the exit, they sprinted through the streets. At a four way stop, a soldier sat in an idling jeep. Zolf gave him a quick sucker punch and dragged him out of the seat, throwing him to the ground.

"Sorry fella, I got a special needs situation here." When the soldier began pulling his weapons, Zolf showed his arrays warningly and the startled soldier bolted down the street.

"C'mon guys, hop in. Let's blow this hot dog stand." As they piled in, he snickered and added, "Oh wait!...We are blowing this hot dog stand!" He laughed and punched the gas peddle, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

After ten minutes of driving like a madman, they finally reached the outskirts. He let out a sigh of relief as they began to put the distance between them.

He braked to a stop after a good three miles and grabbed a pair of binoculars from the dashboard, focusing on Lior in excitement. "Too bad we didn't wait for nighttime. It woulda been extra pretty then."

And now...the waiting.

[amouri]

Barry sighed in relief and let himself drop from the vehicle, flopping on the hard sand with a dull 'flumpf' and the low ringing of the echo inside his armour.
"Glad thats over." He groaned. Lifting his head he glanced at Zolf warily.
"You sure we're safe here?"
In the wild ride out of the city he hadn't helped himself worrying, whether the car broke down, whether he would somehow have been left behind, whether the transmutation went quicker than planned, et cetera.

[masterwarlord]

Envy looked around a bit frantically as they drove out of the city to see if he could spot Wrath. He was sure he was probably already out of the city, but he still wasn’t truly sure of his level of intelligence. . .After they got out of the city, Envy kicked back and relaxed, getting into a nice reclining position and facing towards where the fireworks show would soon begin. Before he could get too comfortable though, he had a sudden fearful thought. ”You –are- sure we’ll be out of the blast radius from here, of course?” Envy asked Kimblee, being his usual paranoid self.

After being reassured, Envy decided to start up a conversation, seeing he had nothing better to do while they waited for the bomb to go off. ”Whadda intend on doing with your share of the philosopher’s stone? I imagine you’ll be content enough with your kill total after this for a good while. You just want power, or what?”. Power was indeed the reason most hunted after the philosopher’s stone, himself included, though he had more an excuse to, seeing how much more it empowered him then a regular human. Then again, unlike regular humans, the stones had an influence over him due to him absorbing them rather then simply using them.

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Bido hopped out of the car after their wild car trip out of the city. The chimera looked at the city of Lior, it would probably be the last time. Somewhere inside he felt pity for the people there but then again he knew very well it wasn't his buisness. Though it would be probematic now to contact Greed.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

He lowered his binoculars and looked at Envy. "I don't know Envy. You're the one who made the array. Are we out of the blast radius?" He raised his binoculars again, watching and waiting.

Once Envy had made him aware of his plan, he'd noticed the deep furrows throughout the streets. It was only about 12-15 miles from Lior to HQ all told, but 3 miles outside the city should be plenty sufficient.

"Power?" he snorted derisively. "Let me tell you something Envy... power implies a certain level of responsibility I don't care for. Just give me the open road and the wind in my face and that's good enough for me."

He closed his eyes and sighed, momentarily caught up in his own daydreams of freedom. No more unreasonable restrictions. At least that's what he hoped for. "The stone?" he answered, "I'm doing a favor for someone, that's all. Free-for-nothin.'...equivalent exchange be damned." He shifted his gaze at Barry, who was still splayed in the sand.

[aspiredeathe]

Jean could tell by her response tat she wasn't very impressed with his answer.
Not that he was trying to impress her anyway.
"So Kimblee didn't mention anything to you?" He asked with little hope, looking briefly to Hawkeye.

Riza just walked along, nodding briefly as she understood the look he gave her. It wasn't good that they knew so little, especially now walking with civilians to a military base.
How would they explain this, besides dropping down their CO's names?
It wouldn't surprise her if the officer in charge was unaware of Archer's mission for them.

"Well, let's not worry about anything besides getting to the base in one piece." The 2nd Lieutenant smiled brightly at his companions.

[velinda]

Roze shook her head. "No, he didn't say anything to me..." she sighed, thinking back to the man... She really didn't know much about him, once she thought about it, but he did seem interested in her, or at least her safety. He got her out of danger, right? Or at least, that's what she assumed he was doing for her. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Hearing the man speak again, she nodded in front of them. "We're almost there now... I think we can get there safely, right?" She sounded a bit cold, but she really didn't have anything against them... it's just she didn't know what was going on...

[syradarkangelle]

Wrath looked at the people walking as he said," I wanna see Fireworks,i sense something pretty will light up the sky." he said in a child like sing song voice.

He kept skipping ahead of them,and then acting childish on purpose,tripped over his own foot. He sat up and blinked his eyes,and then said,"the dirt is angry at me it tried to swallow me." indicating the hole he made with his body.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

[Envy, the P-stone thing is your brainchild. Why don't you do the honors describing the fireworks in your post?]

He sighed, wishing he'd worn a watch. His pocket watch didn't work anymore. It was just a glorified alchemy enhancer at this point. The thing hadn't worked as an actual watch since he'd been forced to hand it over after Ishbal. When Frank had him reinstated to the military, he'd made sure he'd gotten his personal effects from storage. It amazed him that stuff was still there.

He wondered if Havoc and Riza had made it to HQ yet. If they weren't, they would be soon. Then again, they had a civilian and a hyperactive kid with him. A hyperactive kid that had strange, slitted purple eyes. It hadn't escaped his notice, but he'd surreptitiously looked about for an oroboros tattoo and hadn't seen one, so he dismissed it as a congenital birth defect of some sort.

He wondered about Roze, the pretty Liorian native as well. He'd dismissed them all and told her she was free to do what she wanted. He'd almost hoped she would turn back and come along with him. Better this way though. She would have been extremely unthrilled to witness the nasty business under the temple.

His dignity was still a bit stung over being more or less rejected by Sheska, but Roze seemed nice and friendly. He could use a nice gal to straighten his ass out. Or at the very least, not try to stab him in the middle of the night like the one crazy bitch he thought he'd loved once. He guessed it couldn't be helped. He was a bad element and naturally attracted other bad elements. Anything or anyone resembling sanity or normalcy usually cut a wide path around him.

[amouri]

Barry listened quietly to their varied conversation, but lifted his head slightly as the talk came to Zolf's use of the Stone.
He was cheered up quite a bit by Zolf's answer, eyes shining brightly.
"Yay." He chuckled happily in response to Kimblee's glance, flopping back onto the sand again.
He wasn't tired, that wasn't it. And he'd probably get sand in his armour as well. Not that he cared.
He just wanted to stay somewhat still for once. And lying down was something he hadn't actually done for months, oddly enough.
Kneeling was enough for him at most times.

He too waited.

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Bido who had followed the conversations silently turned to look at Barry, carefully getting a little closer to the armour.
"Say...how did you get into that armour?" He asked curiously. "What did those scientists do to you exacly?"
Greed would be annoyed enough if Barry would be a dead track when Kimblee returned his body and if Bido was going to add to it that he didn't even got some useful information about the armour body then he'd be sure to be stuck in the Nest for quite a while again.

[amouri]

Barry looked up as the little fellow questioned him.
"Aw dang, to be honest I don't really want to talk about it." He muttered.
"But if you really want to know, they used alchemy to cut the binding point of my body, and then pulling it back from the gate into the armour. Very risky business, I couldn't move all that well at first. Bloody painful as well. Thought I was gonna die."
He sighed.
"I don't know the precise way they did it...However," He added in afterthought.
"One of my old friends actually might." It kind of amazed him how he hadn't thought of his fellow guardians at lab five...Well, he had, but not much. He imagined they might even be dead, or that they might think he was.
"Yeah...Come to think of it...He would..." He scratched his bony chin as his voice trailed off in thought.

He looked up again.
"Whydya ask?"

[Zolf J Kimblee]

'That Bido sure is full of questions' he speculated quietly. 'Come to think of it, Bido aint asked me any really inquiring questions at all.' He kept the binoculars to his eyes, but at the same time, he kept his ears open to the conversation. Seems in retrospect that Bido had been asking Barry all the heavy questions all along. Well that and peeking down his armor. This was obviously more than a case of Bido simply being his curious self.

But what the hell would Greed want with this kind of information?

[Dorochet [Bido]]

For a moment the gecko chimera feared it would be a dead track as Barry said he didn’t want to talk about it. However in the end Barry did start to spill all the beans. Bido listened carefully taking in every bit of information and trying to figure out which were the useful ones and which were useless.

“Owww so you still have a body somewhere?” Bido asked surprised. Well that would be something new alright. What Barry said was different from what had happened to the youngest Elric.
“So could they put you back in your original body?” He asked curiously. This was starting to get fascinating.
“Did a lot of you guards get out of the lab?” Bido went on with his questioning.

“And how did you end up with the military now? After all they’re the ones who did this to you in the first place. The military orders arrests of people and convicts them as an excuse to do their dirty experiments. One would think you’d avoid them.” He pointed out as he was going back to his own curiousity questions. After all mister Greed never cared much about the why's or the personal decisions of people, he only wanted information that would be useful for his goals. But Bido on his turn couldn't help but wonder why Barry was with the military (this question actually very much applied to Zolf as well, but he'd ask the alchemist later on). The chimera knew well enough how dirty the military was behind the scenes, after all he had been there and gone through that as well.

“Ow I’m just curious.” He declared with a grin.

[amouri]

Barry's eyes widened in astonishment at the amount of questions suddenly rained forth.
"Woah...Slow down." He chirped weakly, trying to get a word in.
The first question actually shocked him.
Hey, come to think of it...His body must be somewhere...depending on whether the alchemists had disposed themselves of it or not.
The latter was probably the right one, the scientists at the lab hadn't wasted anything.
Though whether his body was still in excellent condition, he could only guess.
Maybe they might even have used it for making a stone, he didn't know.

"Yeah...Maybe. You never know what they might have done to it. Seeing as you're from that stinkin' place as well, you can probably imagine what they could have done with it."
He sent Envy a quick glance.
He probably knew EXACTLY what had happened with his original body.
But it wasn't as if that son-of-a-banshee would spill such info.

"I doubt it." He answered flatly to the next question.
"Unless they've frozen it down and someone miraculously manages to get me back into that thing without killing me. Nothing's impossible, but I wouldn't bet on getting alive and healthy through the process needed to do something like that."

He was starting to warm up slightly.
Whomever the gecko was, he had also known the horrors of the lab, maybe on a smaller scale but he had seen them none-the-less. Been a part of them. And lived through it.
Barry felt there couldn't be any harm in telling stuff like that.

"I dunno actually, I just know that Zolf here busted me outta that place. The other's could be dead now for all I know." The thought disturbed him slightly.
"Nah...Maybe not. Us armour folk are tough guys, we don't perish so easily."

Barry paused.
"Well...I'm with Zolf...For now. That...doesn't necessarily mean I'm under military command." He glanced back at Kimblee.
To be honest he had no idea where his loyalties lay at the moment.
He could probably forgive the past if it was worthwhile, the military might be able to keep him safe.
But then again, the thought of being owned like a dog of the people who had caused his downfall...It didn't seem right.
Freedom was of course an optional choice...But he could risk being eliminated by the humunculi later, if he seemed to cause too much of a stir.
He honestly didn't know.
Gah, everything has it time. I'll hopefully know what to do when that time comes.

Anything but the lab.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

Zolf put the binoculars down and glared at Bido. "What's with all the questions?" he asked with no small amount of irritation. "For someone who asks so much, you sure don't offer much in the way of information yourself! Ain't you ever heard the term 'equivalent exchange?' "

Of course even when they'd been Greeds' go-fers, he'd been a curious fellow. He'd pester him with rapid-fire questions just like he was doing with Barry at the moment.

"I had no idea that geckos had such a curious streak." he added. "Or is that just part of your human nature?"

"By the way," he pressed, "why are you way out here in the Lior desert to begin with? Kinda far from home, ain't you? I always wondered: are you cold-blooded like all reptiles? Is Martel cold-blooded too? How do reptilian chimeras procreate? Do they lay eggs like reptiles, or give live births?"

Of course, these were mostly questions of casual curiosity, but maybe Bido would see how irritating it was to be bombarded with rapid-fire questions.

"Jesus, how much longer?" he snapped, raising the binoculars again. "Does anyone here have a watch? I mean..one that actually works?"

He pulled Barry aside, out of earshot of the others. He grabbed his metal arm and whispered, "Barry, for Gods sake! Watch out how much you tell that guy! Or what you say in front of either of these two for that matter! Especially about your body... you never know what these Devil's Nest guys are cooking up!"

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Bido looked at Barry in silence absorbing all the answers on his questions.
It seemed that Barry didn’t mind his questions but seemed to rather start and question them himself as well.
“Nothing near nice for sure.” Bido agreed. He’d rather not even think of what they did at the labs at all. After all it had been hell for everyone who had been at the wrong side of the bars.

Bido nodded in agreement at the next part. Barry was indeed probably better off without whatever remained of his original body.

The fact that Barry seemed to mind him less and respond easily without yelling or threatening him seemed to only rejoice Bido more. It was relieving to be able to talk to someone from the labs beside his own friends. After all they had all lived through the same, so he was curious to know what was the armour guards story.

“Ow yes Zolf blew that place up pretty well.” He agreed as he remembered the little group escape they had after that Greed saved them. Without the homunculus the chimera’s had probably been stuck forever to serve as lab rats day in day out…
“Lucky you.” He added as the comment tore him back out of his thoughts as he wondered how different the labs had been for them.

“Guess it’s different indeed. I wouldn’t want to get a mile near the military anymore for sure.” The chimera mumbled. That was one mistake he wouldn’t want to make again.

Bido blinked a bit surprised as Zolf suddenly started snapping at him. “I’m just curious.” He said obviously a little insulted. “And I know well enough what equivalent exchange is, I’ve hear that excuse for 14 years. But unless you ask something I can’t answer either.” He said a little cold.

“A bit of both.” Bido answered on the curiosity question.
The chimera doubted whether to answer on the first question or not for a moment before he replied. “I’m scouting.” He said eventually. “Like always as it’s the only thing I ever get to do. But at least it gets me out in the open and not stuck in some cellar all of the time. You know you’re not the only person who enjoys being free Zolf! Just because I ended up looking like a circus freak doesn’t mean I want to be kept inside 24/7. I'm not an animal in a zoo.” The chimera said as he didn’t miss what the alchemist was trying to make him say. Though he was convinced the man knew the answers just as well as he did when it came to Greed.

“Yes I’m cold blooded, so are Martel and Vulch for as far as I know. You have no idea how it is during the winter, it’s hell to warm up, deserts are nice and warm for that matter. And they give birth seeing the anatomy is still mostly human.” Bido replied on all the questions not seeming bothered by them but rather amused and enthusiastically by the interest. “See there you have your equivalent exchange.”

As Zolf pulled Barry aside Bido looked questioning for a moment before frowning. “You know Zolf, Dorochette isn’t the only one with good hearing.” Bido mumbled to the alchemist obviously seeming insulted.

[amouri]

Barry noticed Zolf's snappyish manner as he bombarded the little guy, but was mildly affronted when Kimblee pulled him aside.
However, he was only even more confused at what Zolf then said.
"Say what?" Devils Nest?
"I..." Barry paused. He realized now how ridiculously foolish he had been.
Damn, his nonexistent tongue running away with him again.
Barry could change from being suspicious to being like a dog licking your hand at the flip of a coin.
It all depended on his mood.
And managing to escape probably death by alchemy, and with the hope of a new body still on his mind, he had clearly talked too much.
“Ok ok, chill.” He snapped, though quite a bit nervous all the same.
Did the gecko guy really oppose a threat? And of what kind?
And what was this….”…Devils Nest? Zolf, I dunno what the feck ya gobbling about.” He crossed his arms. “Explain?”

[Zolf J Kimblee]

He sighed in exasperation and shook his head. "Look Barry... I know you haven't known me all that long, but I'm only looking out for you. And me."

"You heard the guy," he continued, "he's here 'scouting.' You know... synonymous with spying? The Devil's Nest is a bar, a place for no-goodniks like me and Bido there. And a homunculus named Greed. Clearly he's spying for Greed. We both used to do stuff that like for Greed before I got back in the military."

"Greed ain't called Greed just because it's a cool name, if you get my drift." he added, "If he finds out you got a body somewhere, he'll wanna know why, and when, and where. But mostly what's in it for him. Trust me... if there's any way he can profit from knowing, he'll try to."

Just then, he was interrupted by Bido's insulted voice. "Dammit Bido! I'd hate to imagine having sex in a room next to you!" Come to think of it, he had brought a couple ho's to the nest during his very brief career there. The thought of Bido overhearing...he shuddered involuntarily.

They both walked over to Envy and Bido. "Bido.. I got a proposition for ya. Why don't you join us? You know...ditch Greed and taste some real freedom. I'm sure Envy here could use a handy fellow like yourself." Bido was a sneaky little footpad, but a damn good sneaky footpad. And they'd all be better off if he was playing on their team.

Convincing him would be hard though, he was rather devoted to Greed and his gang.