[FIN]Kimblee & Co. play Secret Squirrel

[velinda]

(I was waiting for Havoc, but I guess I'll post now.)

Roze kept walking along the desert, when something sounded behind her, and the little boy said something about Fireworks and how pudding goes with them. Curious, she turned around, and her eyes widened in horror- what she was seeing was a fountain of what she assumed to be blood shooting up into the sky. And not only that, it seemed to be from Lior, judging from the direction it was- she knew of nothing else that could produce that much blood in that general direction. She slumped down, her legs pointing opposit directions, her arms out in front of her, providing support to hold herself up. She threw up on the desert sand, and her body visibly shook. Is this... why I was told to Leave Lior? Is this what Kimblee was up to...? she wondered, as she looked into the desert sand. She never really liked the sight of blood in the first place, and coupled with the knowledge that it had to be from her hometown... well, she wasn't feeling too good about it. If left alone, she would push herself back up to a standing position, but she would still be shaking slightly. She would turn around to face the others with a sad smile on her face, and say, if they were stopped and looking at her, "L-let's go... sh-shall we...?" If the others had turned around and kept walking, she'd give one last glance at the direction of Lior, and then look ahead and keep walking with them...

[Zolf J Kimblee]

Zolf hopped back into the jeep and started the engine. He was anxious to tie up loose ends and get a move on to the rest of his life.

"Okay, anytime you hens are done cackling..." he said with a devilish grin.

Envy was standing next to the jeep and he answered his question, "Sure thing, Envy. You've proved trustworthy. You made a promise and you delivered. That's good enough for me."

"Mind you, I got a couple loose ends to take care of, but hey... you can come along if you want. Unless you got stuff to do." he added, "but yeah... I'll work with you."

Barry seemed to be hitting it off quite well with Bido. He watched and listened introspectively, but kept his mouth shut. It seemed as though the two of them were in some sort of information trade and it was going well. How other people managed to be so trusting was beyond him. He tended to be more like Envy and err on the side of 'just in case.' Sure, it had it's drawbacks, like being lonely from time to time... well, okay, more than occasionally. He got damn lonely and isolated and it was actually depressing to be an island. But oh well... better to be solitary than fucked over.

[aspiredeathe]

Jean ran a hand down his face as the boy fell. He didn't really have anything against kids, he kind of liked them. It's just the way they tended to act childish.
Glancing at Hawkeye, they silently argued over who would go, till she raised an eyebrow and looked to where his stripes would be.
That was more than clear enough and so the man walked forward, his mind trying to come up with a response to the ground assaulting the boy.

"Hnm, we should be there shortly. They'll possibly detain you, but atleast you'll be inside. And we'll see to it that you get treated well." Riza gave the Ishabal woman a hint of a smile of reassurance before she noticed her colleague looking back at them, a look of utter shock on his face.
Taking a moment to grasp that he wasn't looking at her or Roze, but at where the boy pointed, she turned, her usual stoic face matching her friend's.
Lior, the town they'd just left, was lit up in a bright red light. A light that sent a cold shiver down her spine.
The Philosopher's stone.

Jean could feel the alchemic tension in the air, the red light screaming nothing but death and terror at him.
He wasn't an idiot and with Mustang's constant updates on things, he was damn sure this was not a good thing.
"Hawkeye."He called out with more volume than he thought he could muster, eyes still on the town.
"Yes. We have to get to the base." She breathed out heavily, snapping her eyes from the sight and helping Roze. Her movement was all Jean needed, spinning the boy around and walking rather briskly towards the illuminated building, their shadows, no longer just a blob near their feet, now red and long, stretching out in front of them as a constant reminder of way lay to their six.
Even from here, they could see military personnel standing outside, each and everyone of them in as much awe as they had been.

[masterwarlord]

Envy was surprised he was accepted so easily, honestly, but he generally beat himself up a lot. He really had an extremely split personality in terms of his ego. On the one hand, he was an all powerful homunculus, most probably the most powerful being who walked the earth after his master. On the other hand, he was a slave his entire life who killed thousands and everybody hated the guts of. He sat there dumbfounded briefly until Kimblee said his second little snippet directed at him, forcing himself to come out of it.

”No, that’s fine. No rush. . .Eheh heh. While I don’t really have much of a plan to kill her beyond picking up Gluttony and Wrath and –possibly- Greed’s little group meaning we could just go after her at pretty much any time, that’s just the thing. I’d really like to come up with something more solid before we just run in there on a possible suicide mission. That’s why I’d really like to get Greed involved for some more insurance, but if you don’t wanna work with him I understand entirely. I’m not on any better terms with the guy then you are, really.”. It –was- good to finally actually talk with somebody else about his plan, or lack thereof, with somebody other then himself. Perhaps this way it’d finally actually get somewhat fleshed out? It certainly didn’t do his ego any favors, though. . .

Bringing up Wrath passively reminded him of his existence. Joy of joys, he was gonna be –so- happy to learn that he hadn’t saved him any of the stone. While it might’ve been a good idea to cut off a share for him earlier and also would’ve helped the whole potential losing his sanity problem, it was too late now. There was no way he was coughing up so much as one shard of the thing at this point. He was far too addicted to the things now. Still, he did feel –somewhat- guilty for screwing him over and decided to see if he could locate the little gremlin. ”So. . .Yeah. Wrath. He’s yet another traitor from the old ranks, a little brat. Long black hair. . .Uhhh. . .How to describe him. . .”. Envy never was particularly good with words what with his lack of social exposure, and thus simply transformed into Wrath and back ever so briefly. ”Seen him? I know he’s not much, but he still has the usual homunculi regeneration and crap, so it’s –something-. Seeing Greed’s exclusive power is really just another layer to his regeneration, he’s worth taking, no? His alchemy is better then any shit Greed can pull out his ass.”

[amouri]

Barry's helmet creaked in what would have been a grin.
"Well then, good luck with that lil guy." He said cheerfully, slapping Bido on the back.
He looked up as Kimblee vaulted into the jeep, and quickly followed him.
What they were supposed to do now, he had not the slightest inkling of.
He listened as always in silence to the conversation held in front of him.

[Dorochet [Bido]]

“Thanks.” Bido said to Barry at his cheerfully good luck wishing.

Bido gave Envy a slightly disapproving glare as the homunculus kept insulting Greed. Dorochette had said something about Envy not being completely impossible to work with but Bido had his doubts. He wondered if Greed would accept any such an suggestion of the shape shifter. If Greed did however decide he’d go along with Envy, so would all the remaining chimera’s, there was no coubt about that.

“That’s the brat from the Elrics teacher.” Bido noted as Envy morphed into Wrath. Zolf and him had done quite a wild goose chase after the little bugger in the time the alchemist was still part of the Nest.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

"Oh! That little urchin!" he said, "I was wonderin' if he was a homunculus. Didn't see an oroborus on him anywhere though. I sent him along with two of my men to HQ. Didn't want him in the way while I was working."

"Come on, Bido...hop in." the jeep jostled quite noticeably when Barry climbed in. "If I really step on it, maybe I can divert them before they reach HQ."

Once they were all in the jeep, he pressed the gas and shot off down the bumpy and sandy terrain. Eventually he spotted four small figures ahead of them. Apparently they were close, but still not there. Good thing, too. He'd be able to assess their opinions about what they'd seen in Lior.

He had further discussions with Envy along the way. "Well, Bido's headed back to the Nest, and Central's on the way, I think." he said, "Greed wont be any too happy to see me. Probably wanna turn me into a little grease spot, if you get my drift. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. How could he blame me for getting greedy for my freedom? Surely he can relate to that if nothing else.

The jeep pulled to a halt next to Havoc and his small band of people. "Hey there, soldier! You guys still schlepping around in the sand?"

[Dorochet [Bido]]

“Didn’t he had it hidden somewhere or something? It’s easy to look over or to hide.” Bido pointed out before he had done as told and hopped into the jeep.

“To be honest I doubt mister Greed actually cares.” Bido added. Greed hadn’t seemed very interested or angry when Bido had told him about Kimblee. He had only warned Bido to be cautious around the mad alchemist but nothing more.

As the caught up with the group again Bido looked at the soldier before looking to the direction of the nearby HQ. He didn't felt much for going around there, though as long as he kept his hood on and his tail away people never paid much attention to him.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

"Come to think of it... we never got close enough to see for ourselves," he said to Bido, "Fuhrer Bradley pretty much saw to that."

He noticed Roze standing there, her unusual hair shining like burgundy in the rays of the setting sun and 'tipped' an invisible hat that he wasn't actually wearing..."Evenin, Little lady.."

Apparently he didn't put 1 and 1 together. It should have been obvious that Envy here, had been pulling those strings and doing his morphomatic business back then.

That had also been the same day Frank Archer had 'made him a deal he couldn't refuse...at gunpoint.' Not like that made much difference... he'd walked away laughing at the time. But he didn't forget about it and from that point forward he began paying close attention to all of Greeds movements until he came to realize his remains were in the safe he guarded at all moments of the day or night. Didn't the guy believe in hiding things in plain site? Posting a guard next to the wall safe made it obvious there'd been something to hide. Oh well...it had certainly made his job easier. And now Archer had the thing, as far as he knew. Hmmmm...

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Zolf pretty much had a good point, though it was painful. They didn’t even had had the opportunity to have a closer look at the brat. At least they had done slightly better with the Elrics, though in the end it hadn’t been of much use at their lips had been sealed.

As Kimblee was busy courting Rose Bido turned his attention back to the HQ. He didn’t really trusted to go in there and risking of maybe getting caught. Though on the other hand maybe the officers there didn’t gave a damn if he was a chimera, a normal human or an illegal alien for that matter. So maybe he could afford slipping inside to get a hold of a phone, if not he would just wait till they were in Central. It wasn’t as if Greed was impatiently waiting for his news as he was probably to busy with other things anyway.

[amouri]

Barry gave a happy chirp as they approached the three in the rickety car.
even though the feeling probably wasn't mutual, he was extremely happy to see Hawkeye again.

As Kimblee jumped out of the truck again, and approached teh Liorian girl however, Barry realized something that made him shrink into his seat.
He was completely covered in blood, he could actually hear how the stiff scabcoated bristles of his hair scraped over metal whenever he moved his head.

He could imagine what a sight he must be, and the sharp metallic smell of blood that he had known so well would probably not help.
He looked at his hands, completely caked in dried gore and small chips of bone, bits of flesh still lodged behind the spines on his knuckles.

With a weak hiss and a whimper he slumped in his seat, trying for all in the world to just dissapear from sight.

[Dorochet [Bido]]

Bido sighed as he sat back on the jeep while waiting for Zolf to get done with whatever buisness he wanted to do. The alchemist truely was crazy. First he destroyed the girls hometown and now he flirted with her, strange.

Bido looked behind him as suddenly he saw Barry jump back in the jeep, looking as if he wanted to sink through the ground. It too a moment before Bido figured out why but when he did he grinned amused. "Here." He said as he tossed a ragg at Barry. It had been his old ragged coat, but he didn't need it anymore now anyway so Barry might as well use it to clean himself up a bit and get the blood of.

[Zolf J Kimblee]

[Uh oh... seems someone/s been paying more attention to detail than me. Yeah...all covered in blood. But Zolf didn't actually get out of the car yet. *runs to check post* Nope, he's still in the jeep.]

"Well? You soldiers just gonna stand there and let your jaw hang? Hop in!" he said, "No point turning down a perfectly peachy ride to HQ. Riza, you can sqeeze between me and Barry here, Rose and Havoc? You guys can squish in with my other friends in back. Oh yeah.. the little urchin...if you don't mind, Hawkeye, can he sit in your lap?"

[I'm gonna wait for Jean or Riza to post]

[Dorochet [Bido]]

((Sorry XO Didn’t notice that one.))

As it seemed that the jeep was about to get a lot more crowded, Bido shove aside to sit out of the way and make room for the two others. Either way it wasn’t as if he took much space. From what he had gathered Barry should be rather happy with the small spaces though. Bido on his turn hoped that the Havoc person would sit beside him and not Rose. It was nothing personal but the girl seemed more curious than the man. Curiosity and religious plus scales didn’t mixed too well after all.

[velinda]

((Hey hey, you forgot me!))

Roze felt the female officer help her up after she felt weak, and gave a weak smile to her. "T-thanks.. you aren't bad for a military officer..." she said, her voice as weak as she looked. However, after a few moments, she stood on her own. "I-i'm fine now... I think..." and started to walk on her own again. However, when the jeep came flying up to them, she backed away abit, her eyes fixated on the man she knew as Kimblee... but not much else. She had actually begun to like him, but...

"K-kimblee..." she started, her words shaky, and she looked slightly pale still, contradicting the bright colour of her hair. "C-can I... talk to you... B-by yourself... B-before we go...?"

[Zolf J Kimblee]

[Oh dear...the moment of truth. I'm gonna have to sleep on this one and see if I can figure a way for him to weasel himself out of this one! xD]

[Zolf J Kimblee]

He lowered his head, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Well, the moment of truth..

He hopped out and approached her apprehensively. "Okay...so, what is it you wanna talk about...in private and all?"

Well, looks like his chances were flushed down the toilet again. But a promise was a promise, and he wasn't going to back down. At this rate, he'd have to take up with the sleazy women who he seemed to draw like flies, or else consign himself to a life of celibacy and solitude. The latter was looking better all the time. Hell with it!

He was feeling defensive and irritated before she even spoke.

[amouri]

Barry looked up as the coat was handed over to him.
"Gee, thanks." He responded weakly, and then proceeded to vigorously rub his face with it.
The blood was still fresh enough, so most of it was mopped up by the now filthylooking coat.
His mane of hair he couldn't do anything about however. He'd have to see if he could get some water as soon as they were out of the desert.

After a quick wipedown he felt slightly better, though he was aware that there was still lots of gore wedged in different places.
He'd just have to live with that for now.

[velinda]

Roze glanced apprehensively at Kimblee. "W-what happened... in Lior...? Was that... blood that squirted up from Lior?" She knew the answer to the second question, so she asked it only to see if he would be honest to her. "Kimblee..." she whispered, "I know you did something back there... but if you did it because there was a promise you had to keep because that promise... meant everything to you..." she looked down to her feet, "I understand... I've... done that, too..." she continued, thinking back to how she followed Cornero so faithfully that she led the Elrics into a trap- all because he said that he could bring Kain back to life...

[Zolf J Kimblee]

He let out a sigh of relief. Well... slight relief anyhow. He shrugged nervously and answered her, "Well..I thought it was only the glow of..the stone, but yeah...it was blood in there too."

He glanced at her in unease. Now would come the slap...now would come the nails clawing his face. And how could he blame her? Hadn't he just robbed her of all she had ever known?

"Well," he added, in his lame defense, "I was sort of... strongly encouraged to participate in this, but yeah..there was a promise involved later on."

In the beginning he'd had no intention of cooperating with Envy. Not on account of conscience, but more of a 'what's in it for me?' attitude. And then when he saw an opportunity to help out Barry, he changed his tune. Not like Envy would have just shrugged and let him go without wearing him down to his last nerve.

But now the fireworks were over, he had a stone in his pocket, and a strangely anti-climactic feeling about it all. Only getting Barry back into a body would do something to alleviate this new feeling that was decidedly uncomfortable.

"But," he added, "I couldn't bear to see you go up in smoke. I dunno.." he shrugged.

The truth of the matter was that he didn't give two shits about the people he'd turned into the stone. They were people he didn't know or care about. But it was an annoying quandry of conscience when his actions hurt the people he did know. He was a bad dog.