"Manifesto?"
Rai twisted his neck to try and look at Isaac from his difficult position on the ground. Steel Web wasn't looking at him, so his poisonous glare went unnoticed. The assassin groaned and laid back down to let a new wave of pain wash over him. "You would so quickly dismiss the opinions of your foe? Maybe that's how they do it in this hellhole of a country, but in Xing we have enough respect for our enemies to hear them out."
Cars still soaking from the rain dripped water idly into waiting puddles. A faint percussion added to the scene. Rai was silent for a moment, and started talking again.
"If you're expecting me to break down over how I'm a heartless wretch and beg for your forgiveness, it's not happening alchemist. I have no pretenses about my work here. I was hired to do a job, and I did i--I tried. But I've seen what your military does; it's devil's work. This whole nation stinks of a foul odor I've never sensed anywhere else. I won't say I wasn't happy to sign up for a job to bring down men as corrupt as your Fuhrer. My boss--he's a chimera. A HUMAN chimera."
Isaac would have leaped up to question him, but exhaustion kept him on the ground. "But... that's impossible."
"Or the more likely answer is, you were lied to." Rai retorted. "There are already enough lies in this country to weave a spider's web, a few more won't hurt. This chimera, he was made by your peers in the military. When he got sick from the experiments, and was too frail to use anymore, they threw him into the streets to die. Wouldn't you want a little retribution for that?"
He stared over at Frieda, as best as his eyes could glance from his position. "And I take it you've already seen what the slums are like around here..."
With a bit of painful shifting, he placed a hand behind his head to cradle it. "Every one of us had a reason to hate the military. Some better than others, but they were there either way. Painting the world black and white just doesn't work, dog. So then, you said you'd kill me or something?"
[hr]
The thief's arm was caught up in the whip and as it pulled taught, ripping through her rubber suit and drawing blood. Chartrisse was wounded in several areas now, and she was starting to get sluggish. She glared at Roland, letting out a few ragged breaths. Then something changed. Her expression shifted from anger into something else--fear, maybe--and then before it could even fully settle it was blown into full despair. Her chest heaved a few times as sobs escaped it, and she collapsed to her knees crying.
"Oh, god, please stop!" she sputtered out in the breaths she got between sobs. "I di-didn't want t-t-to hurt anyone! They s-s-said t-they-they'd kill me if-if I didn't--"
She let out a particularly loud gasp and clutched the back of her head with both arms, balling up on the floor looking rather pitiful for it all. "P-p-please, you ha-have to help m-me! I c-can't go back to them, they'll--they'll..." By that point, she'd lost all control of herself and was weeping on the floor of the warehouse. It wasn't even obvious if she remembered that Lightning was there anymore.
[hr]
Kallu, followed doggedly by Major Armstrong, reached the hospital to find it abuzz with activity. New wounded and dead from the attacks were being brought in by the minute, and the lobby was chock full of men and women waiting to get in. As Kallu pushed his way through the crowd, another individual not much taller than him shoved his way past and out the door. Was that... Victor?
There was no time to dwell on it then. Kallu immediately flashed his pocket watch to get him to the front of the line, where a nurse listened to his description of the events leading up to this very nervously. She immediately summoned a stretcher, upon which the bomber brother was placed and quickly wheeled up to the third floor. Stone followed closely, and was allowed into the room they had for him. The moment that he was in place, the other nurses backed away quickly so that the State Alchemist could do his job. It wouldn't be wise to be around if any extra bombs went off.
[hr]
"...You say you honor your word.... And yet all I have seen evidence of is your cowardice... You lure me down here to ambush me when you already have me outnumbered... And if that weren't enough, you hold an innocent woman hostage. And yet you claim to be honorable? You think you're any better than the military?"
"Issss it truly evil to be well-prepared? We ssssimply wisssshed to enssssure that you would not esssscape our grassssp. I will make no defensssse for the atroccccities we commited tonight. We are.... passsst the point where honor matterssss. All that DOESSSS matter issss bringing down the military. Even if it cossssstssss ussss our livessss."
"The military is by no means blameless... And perhaps you are not wrong to seek your revenge on them... But endangering civilians to do so will only earn you more scorn and a swift death. My comrades will come after me and they are much less sentimental than I."
The snake-man seemed angered by what Marlin said that time. "Have you not sssseen my body? I am a FREAK. People already hate me, jusssst for what I look like. I do not CARE about their opinionssss of me. Only the good I can bring about, whatever the cosssst."
Something new sounded in the tunnels, wherever they were. It was fully audible now, if faint. A gunshot. The chimeras looked at each other warily, and the snake leading them pointed at a pair to investigate. The bear and the bird nodded in acknowledgement, and ran down the tunnels. There was silence. Then, a noise finally erupted.
SQUAAAAAAAWK. sklit sklit
The sound of razor-like feathers embedding themselves into their targets brought an unnerving grin to the snake's face. "You ssssee, Deep Blue? In the end, you're really all alo--"
BA-BOOM
The unmistakable sound of a rocket launcher bombastically roared through the entire tunnel system, shaking the chimera's lair as rocks and dust came loose all around them. The snake's eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped as the bear chimera's charred corpse flew past his face like a bullet and crashed through the wall on the opposite side of the lair. The tunnel opposite the one Marlin had come from erupted with a yellow light from a torrent of gunfire erupting from it. The bird chimera frantically flew out of the cramped space as fast as its wings could take it, pursued by the downright sadistic visage of Mira Banagher. Her pistol rocked its barrel back and forth as half a dozen rounds zipped through the air.
One lucky shot caught itself in the bird's wing, and it dropped from the air for a moment, hovering only about ten feet off the ground. "NOW!" Mira shouted. On cue, another figure barreled out of the tunnel; Marlin recognized Lt. Banagher as he moved at a speed no man his size should have been able to go. His wife leaped into the air and landed in the Lieutenant's hands, still charging forward like a mad bull. With a massive exertion he lifted his arms and catapulted Mira into the air, the brunette flying like a projectile straight onto the chimera's back. She reached to her bootstrap and drew an absurdly long combat knife, a malicious grin on her lips.
The bird began to panic as it realized what was happening and shook around in every direction to try and remove the madwoman from the military.
Lt. Banagher, meanwhile, unslung a large submachine gun he'd been carrying on his shoulder and opened up. Its drum barrel shook as all-dousing weapons fire filled the room. In the confusion, the chimeras had managed to let go of Lila. The young woman saw her chance and immediately dashed towards the tunnel, finding a bit of refuge inside while the snake man made a run for it as well. The remaining two chimeras were taking cover as best as they could in the pillars around the room.
Marlin, who had been kneeling still in all the chaos, heard Banagher call out to him. "Um, I'm gonna run out of ammo eventually, sir! Your jar??"
[hr]
Fuhrer King Bradley stared at Anton for a moment, judging his expression. "No. You will be doing no such thing, Lieutenant."
Seeing the crestfallen expression on his subordinate's face, he elaborated. "Not only would you be endangering yourself, as one of their targets, you'd be endangering civilians by inviting open conflict; I'm suspicious of your attitude, agent. You'll be spending the rest of this incident here at HQ. Do you understand?" That mysterious, hateful glare that only popped up on the rarest of occasions was presented in full force this time.
