Fullmetal Alchemist: The Way To The Top

Chapter 14: Mission

They reached the old warehouse. There were no signs of people being around there. In the inside, everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. Though on the ground was a way, which was obviously used recently. It went to a door to the underground. There was the nation-wide transmutation circle. Roy learned before, where the exits were. The snipers took their positions at the exits from the tunnels. Roy and his team entered the warehouse. Roy turned to them. "We still don't know, how many of them are down there. Our task is to destroy them and save Second Lieutenant Havoc. We will enter the tunnels together, then I will give you orders. Remember, that there is a possibility there is an alchemist among them. If it is so, don't fight him alone. If we will spread, form groups of at least two people. If possible, give me reports as often as you can. I am expecting you to do your best. And the most important order." Roy made a pause to make sure everyone was listening, "Don't die." They all saluted. "Yes, Sir!" Then they entered the tunnel.

In the tunnel, there were some fresh steps on the ground. The walls were partly just the ground, partly they were covered with stones. The tunnel was about three meters wide and two and a half meter high. Roy led them with the way to the left, which was right according to his intuition. As far as he remembered, the tunnels were larger there, so most likely there were some rooms. Nobody spoke a word. They tried to make as little noise as possible. The only light was a small fire, which Roy transmuted in front of them. After about ten minutes, they reached a crossing. From the tunnel on the right, a little light reached them. Roy ended the transmutation. He turned to the others and put a finger in front of his mouth. They all nodded.

On the end of the tunnel, there was a small room. In the room, they found four people. They were sitting around a round table. They laughed on some joke one of them told. The team stepped to the side of the door, not to be seen. Riza and Maria Ross stood nearest to the door with their guns ready, as they fulfilled the role of snipers. Roy showed them to wait. He wanted to listen if they will get some information from their conversation.

When the laughter ended, one of them said: "And that alchemist fella... What's his name?" "Dunno," the other answered, "the boss always calls him Alchemist." They laughed again. Apparently, they drank a lot of alcohol before. "But he is pretty good." a third one said seriously, "I heard his specialization are drugs." Roy's eyes widened. He knew how dangerous could drugs made by alchemy be. Even though that man said that alchemist was good, Roy didn't believe it. It frightened him even more. Drug alchemy in bad hands could cause a lot of troubles to the victim. He could only hope they haven't given anything to Havoc yet. And if they did, Roy hoped it hasn't caused any damage. The fourth one said: "Yeah, he has been experimenting on the soldier recently." The Mustang team outside exchanged terrified looks. They listened on. "Anything serious? Is he going to kill him?" One of them asked with a casual tone as if he was  asking about the weather. Roy was getting furious. "Nope. At least as far as I know." The team was slightly relieved at the moment.

"I have spoken with the boss earlier today. He explained me everything." "Wow, so you are his favorite, aren't you?" "What a nonsense. He had a job to do for me and he informed me." "So he had a special job for you. Why haven't you said anything?" Roy started to get impatient. But they needed to find out what the enemy has done to Havoc. He took a deep breath and stood next to Riza to hear better. The conversation went on. "That's not important now. Important is, I know what the Alchemist is working on and I am sure you guys will be interested into that." There was a short pause. "He invented some formula, which can bring the feeling of the most recent serious injury to the victim. He wants to use it for all the higher-ups in the current military. Each one of them has had a serious injury before. This is a great way to make them speak without dirtying our hands." "You were right, it is really interesting. Does it bring the injury back?" Riza looked at Roy. A look of guilt was in his eyes. She used their so good working eye-signal-conversation method. 'Don't blame yourself.' She said. Roy smiled at her. 'That's easier said than done.' 'We don't have time for that now. Listen on.' "No, it brings just the feeling short after the injury and then during the healing process. The problem is, it only works for a short time - just about two days, so we will have to use quite a lot of that. The thing is, that guy got the first portion today. By the time he is able to communicate, but he can't walk. It seems he has had a spine injury before." A laughter escaped the room. Roy was shaking with anger by that time. "But tomorrow, latest the day after, we will have to give him another drug, because he will be as healthy as before." In everyone's faces, there could be seen a look of anger, but also relief.