The Butterfly and Flame Alchemists: War (COMPLETE)

Part Nine: Payment Returned

The pounding in Ed's head was nothing like he had ever felt before. He couldn't really remember what had exactly happened, only that he had just shown up in time to see Father give an attack. Looking around through the smoke and debris, he saw Izumi laying only a few feet away from him.

"Teacher!" he called, scrambling over to her.

"I... I'm fine," she said, sitting up as she held one of her wounds, "Hohenheim... he saved me, at the last second,"

"Hohen..."

Ed looked over and saw his father standing over then, his arms spread wide, and his skin looking like it could start flaking off.

"Hohenheim!" Ed yelled at him, looking him in the face, "Pull yourself together!"

Suddenly Father came up behind Hohenheim and placed his hand on his head. Without even straining himself he sent Hohenheim flying across the grounds, making him sink into the hard ground.

"First, I'll start with two," Father said, raising his arm as he glared at Ed and Izumi.

It felt like they were being electrocuted as they were being smothered. He couldn't breathe or move but he knew that he had to stop Father before he was killed.

"FIRE!" someone yelled from behind them and suddenly a shower of bullets began to rain on Father.

As the pullets hit his force field, his grip on the two of them was released and they spluttered as they retreated, gasping for breath.

"Our target is a dead ringer for the Fullmetal Alchemist!" someone yelled, "Don't get it wrong! He's the one WITHOUT the auto-mail, got it?!"

Rocket launcher after rocket launcher was fired at Father as soldiers ran in and retrieved those who had been fighting Father. Not matter how much they threw at him, nothing got past that damned force field.

"We need more fire power!" Ed said, trying to stifle the bleeding on his shoulder.

"Don't give him a chance to counter attack!" the soldier who picked up Ed yelled into a phone.

None of the solders did give him a chance. They sent every last bit of ammo they had at him and you could see that Father was starting to get agitated. Right when people were starting to run low on ammo and moral, a Briggs soldier began to yell to his fellow soldiers.

"Hold your fire!" he yelled, "Take cover! The flame alchemist is coming!"

Without a moment's hesitation, the entire courtyard heard a snap and a giant wave of flames washed over Father's sphere. A giant smile on his face, Ed looked over to see Mustang holding Aileana close to him on one said and Hawkeye giving him directions on the other.

"Did I hit him?" Roy asked.

"You were off by just a few feet!" Aileana said.

"Adjust your aim by five degrees to the right!" Hawkeye said.

"It's hard to restrain my fire power when I can't see," Roy shook his head, clapping his hands together to transmute.

"You don't need to have restraint! Distance fifty, no fifty three!"

"I'm still not used to putting my hands together to transmute!"

An even greater wave hit father and everyone could feel the heat on their faces. But now Father was getting impatient. Holding up his hand, he caught Roy's fire and sent it flying back in a fire ball right at their group.