The Wanderers [Raichi]

[Kane]

Kane put her hands in her pockets and stared at the ground. The bench she was sitting on was uncomfortable as ever, and it was still damp from the light rain that had come through hours before. She hadnt moved in that time. She didnt want to be seen going back to her...well, she wouldnt call it a home, but, shelter. The rain had chilled her to the bone, and she damned her stubbornness and suspicions of everybody for making her remain glued to the bench rather than seeking shelter out of the rain.

She hurt, now. Her ports ached from the cold and wet, and a residual, light throb from the changes in pressure. She sighed and tilted her head up as she leaned back against the stiff wood. Dusk was just beginning to fog up the daylight that was fading quickly. Sighing, she turned to look at the setting sun. It was like a fire that had the ability to devour all of Central, along with everybody in it. However, she couldnt help but think of the ancient warning when she looked at it. "Get too close to the sun, and you burn..."

The nearly enigmatic yet maddeningly obvious statement was well-known. Putting her hands on her knees, she pushed herself up, turning her back on the light. "You burn, huh?" she asked herself, vanishing into the shadows of a surprisingly well-lit alley. "I wouldnt call an experience like that burning." She moved her right arm slightly, rattling the rusty bolts and screws in it. "I'd rather call that and the after pure terror..."

She turned corners without thinking. She knew the path by heart and could walk it blindfolded. She'd seen to the route for years, and so far had lived in peace, away from society, as the surrounding buildings were vacant, with intent to be rennovated. As she turned a final corner, she stopped. An odd feeling prickled her spine. She sensed there was somebody else in the alley. Raising her eyes cautiously, she looked up. So far, there was nobody in sight...but...she had the most curious feeling. As though she was being watched. But she had made sure there was nobody around her, right?

If she felt threatened, it would be easy enough for her to slip into the sides of the old, abandoned remains of Laboratory Five.

[Raichi]

"The rain stopped, let's go" Shayem urged, still not comfortable taking shelter without permission. "Oh come on, I doubt anyone still lives in this dump. We should make this our home for now, it's perfect" Isha defended, but all the other could think of was getting busted and thus get into trouble. He picked up a rubber band from the ground and tied his long white hair, noticing women's clothes scattered across the room "What about the clothes? It means there's a woman living here, what if she turns up?" "Shayem calm down" Isha stood up from the bed and walked over to his friend to pat him on the shoulder "The women we've met so far on our travels have all been kind and offered us shelter, right? So even if a woman does still live here and busts us, she would be in a pickle herself dontcha think? It's not really a suitable home for normal people" his words and act as if it was no big deal helped calm his friend a little.

Thus far they had been lucky on their travels, kind singles and even families having them over. All they had to do was explain their situation and they sympathised, promising them not to rout them out. Not only did they get offered a place to sleep, they were supported with new clothes and food to keep them going on their travels. The most difficult part of their journey to central city had been the desert, for the nights were cruel and cold and their food and water resources slim, the days hot and the view but sandy hills and desert for days. Heck they were near death when they finally got out. They had been lucky though. Lucky to have survived, to have managed to hide from cops and military personnel. Lucky to have managed entrance to central city unnoticed and without passports. They mostly stuck to the back alleys where they stumbled upon the shelter in search to hide from the rain, they had only been in Central City for half a day so far.

“I don’t know…” Shayem hesitated “Something doesn’t feel right.. You’ve seen the ‘missing ads’. If said person has seen them the-” “Then we’ll just explain like we did with the others, this is the best hide out we’ve got. Odds of getting busted out in the open are much higher than here. And like I said, whoever lives here can’t possibly work for the military or government so this really is the safest place to be for now. Plus we’ll be dry in case it rains again.” At last Shayem nodded, he had just been nervous ever since they arrived in Central City because they knew the stakes were high. It was the most protected area police wise, so if they were to get even as much as spotted, the place would soon be crawling with police on the look-out for them. In other words, they had to be extra careful, something Isha needed to work on with his careless lifestyle.

“See? It’s not so bad.. heh, if we’re lucky this place can be our new home, and we can make disguises out of th-” Shayem’s hand covered Isha’s mouth, preventing him from finishing his sentence “shhh..” he whispered “Listen” but no sound was heard, Isha removing his friend’s hand but whispered as well “You’re imagining things..” “Shhh!” again nothing, but just as Isha wanted to speak up again a footstep sounded through the alley, the sound lightly clutching due to the water that was left on the streets. Whoever was walking was taking their time, as if cautious of something. Isha quickly took Shayem’s hand and silently guided him underneath the bed, Shayem voice trembling in fear “I told you so!”

“Shhh!”

[Kane]

Kane froze as she heard a voice...no, voices...other than her own speaking. Had she, in fact, been watched? How the hell had she not noticed it sooner? She was close to a paranoid nut with trust issues; she was generally on edge unless she was attempting to get sleep. Kane could have found more decent cover rather than risking turning to face whomever the voice belonged to. However...she was slightly interested in the owners of the voices. They sounded young. Despite the fact they were muffled because of the toppled stone, she could still make them out somewhat. Sighing slightly, she looked down at the ground before moving next to a stone, more towards the voices so that she could make them out. She hoped these apparent children wouldn’t come looking for any sort of a fight. If it was a fight that she wound up having to get herself out of, she would do just that. She had her alchemy and...though admittedly an 'obvious' untrained style of fighting, she could still hold her own in a physical fight for at least a while. However...they sounded young enough to indicate that she would not need to resort to more aggressive methods of dispatching them to get away.


Swallowing, she clenched her fists in her pocket, listening more to the voices. The voices were both light, but with a male edge to them. That clued her into the ages of their owners...probably younger than sixteen at best. Most of the people after her were men that were in their thirties to fourties. Well...they werent so much ‘after her’ as they thought she was already dead. And they wouldnt attract her attention. They would just kill her flat-out. Luckily, though, she had managed to maintain a low profile for seven years while finding various ways to get by in Central City. From her years of walking the alleys and streets, she had practically memorized the key city of Amestris – she knew all the ‘backroads’ and more. Unfortunately, though...


She looked around. She wasn’t near a backroad of sorts to take to opt out of risking an encounter with the owners of the voices. Sighing, she stepped forward slowly. The rusted joints of her kness protested greatly, the grating sound of rusty metal scraping against more rusty metal echoing louder than preferred through the rather quiet area. She started walking, looking up into the sky. It was strange, really, that she had accidentally stumbled this close to other people. She had only ever elected to come into close (relatively, anyway) contact with people whenever she needed something ...which was hardly ever because of the pride she was unwilling to hurt rather easily mainly.



She was wrenched out of her thoughts by a sharp clang that sound in the air shortly before she felt herself falling forward. Letting out a startled yelp, she turned defensively and felt the rough face of rubble scrape against the skin on her cheek as she slid down it, landing in a rather undignified heap on the other side....sort of. She was still laying on the large piece of rubble – which was angled slightly downwards – but she couldn’t move her left foot well. Heck, she couldn’t harldy move her leg from the knee down. Managing to force her body into a half-upright position by propping herself against her forearms on the stone, she turned to look at her leg. Apparently, she had hit the rubble at about mid-shin-height, and a thin, metal pole had taken the opportunity to tear through her pantleg and stick itself in the right rivet of the sheet of metal that acted as a shin covering for her automail. She was still able to move her foot, miraculously, but she couldn’t move her leg off of the pole – which had driven itself through the rivet and out the opposite side, under a sheet of metal that fell down the back of her leg just above her ankle.


....you have got to be kidding me... Kane thought, annoyed by the situation her clumsiness had gotten her into.


If the younger men she had heard took an opportunity to attack her, she couldn’t say that she would prefer to fight like this. Right now, however, she was more concerned about getting the metal pole successfully out of her leg without obstructing the use of it at all. Biting her lip, she tried moving her foot slightly in various directions to see if there was some way she could work it out without having to move much.


...this sucks. was all she could think, although slightly enlightened by the prospect of using at least some brainpower today. She had found that if she went too long without doing something remotely logical or academic, she got increasingly bored – which had proved to have some rather undesirable results.

[Raichi]

It was quiet, aside from the sound of footsteps through the wet alleyways. The boys were sure not to make a sound, aware they were reported missing so an encounter with anyone could be disastrous if they were recognized. Shayem prayed to his goddess for them to truly be hiding in an abandoned house, scared to death whoever was walking would open the front door and walk up the stairs to the bedroom where they were hiding. The sudden loud yelp and crash had the boys cling to each other in fear, to soon release again and listen silently if they could pick up any more sounds. For now they just wanted whoever was out there to leave, after all, they were but children, and who but criminals and coppers would walk dark alleyways at night? There were barely any more sounds to observe, a bit of rubble falling to the ground from Kane’s struggling but that was all.
Finally Isha whispered “Do you think the fall made whoever’s out there unconscious..?” but Shayem was reluctant to speak, afraid whoever was out there could hear their whispers. He did shake his head though, it would be too easy an escape if that were the case. “You stay here.. I’m going to have a look” as silently as possible Isha crawled from underneath the bed and stealthily moved over to the window to peek from the lower edge. The other had attempted to stop him by tugging his clothes but gave up and remained under the bed. If Isha were to get in trouble at least he would be safe and attempt to track and free him, even if it meant contacting the local authorities. The boy soon crawled back to the bed though, informing him that there was a person stuck with a pole through their leg.

For the first time since they hid under the bed Shayem spoke up “We should stay here.. just in case the person knows we’re missing..” for a moment the other considered it, until he came up with a better plan “Or.. I can get us some money from this person so we can buy some food tomorrow morning at the market.” A sneaky grin appeared on Isha’s face but the longhaired silver couldn’t smile about it “Are you crazy? It’s too dangerous! What if they live here?”
“That’s why you stay here, I’ll come get you if it’s safe” there was little more Shayem could do at this point, if he would try to stop him they would end up making so much noise both of them would get caught. Isha took a shirt and wrapped it around his head as a cloak, and wrapped a grown up sized jacket around his body to hide himself. All one could see were his red eyes, the rest of him was but a shadow in the dark. He made sure he was silent when he walked off the stairs, barefoot just to make sure and sneaked out of the building.
Carefully he approached the woman lying in the rubble with her leg stuck, “Are you stuck?” making sure he kept his distance so she couldn’t hit him if she were to lash out. He manoeuvred around her leg a little to see what was going on, oddly enough it lighter in the alley than in the room he resided, probably from the moon and stars. “I could free you.. but what if you attack me?” he wasn’t sincerely scared, just playing pretend. He felt his identity was well hidden with the disguise, and as an alchemist he felt confident he could beat a normal grown up. “I could ask for money, but what if you take it back when you’re freed?” for now he was playing with fire, if he were to free her and she had bad intent he would have to resort to alchemy. If she was an alchemist herself or even an officer he would be toast. He could see she wasn’t an officer though. “What’s the promise of a stranger worth? I can’t trust you.. No.. it’s too risky for me to free you..” he turned around and started walking off really slowly, expecting her to call him back, it was all part of the negotiation. If all went according to plan, she would be free soon, and he and his friend would have plenty of money to buy themselves a nice meal on the market the next day.

[Kane]

Kane remained relatively calm from her fall. The spicket of metal protruding from the block of rubble was only about as high as her lower shin, so it was as though she had tripped over a root in the ground. Admittedly the collision with the block of concrete the metal pole was sticking out of more was more of a shock than the metal spicket being driven in the slit of her shin plate and out the back of her ankle. She had to admit she was happy for the fact that the internal workings of the automail had miraculosly been left undamaged. She closed her eyes for a moment to think about the situation. Yes, it was annoying. Yes, it would be a bit of a pain to get out of from her current position. No, it wasn’t something she couldn’t deal with. She’d just need to maneuver herself correctly.

She opened her eyes when she heard footsteps. Although they were faint, she still heard them. Her light blue gaze looked for the source, and it came into view after a few seconds as if on cue. A cloaked figure stood before...or...beside her now, looking down at the admittedly embarassing situation. She didn’t flush, or hardly make any expression. Kane maintained a rather apathetic expression. In her mind, she was admittedly trying to think if she could get away with an excuse of ‘I felt like laying on this slab...I was tired.’ It was nighttime, after all. However, she had a feeling that the pathetic attempt of a lie wouldn’t pass with anyone. As the figure – now identifyibly male – spoke, she only blinked once or twice at their words while she kept a silent, admittedly somewhat sarcastic, mental commentary going back-and-forth in her mind.

“Are you stuck?”

Nope, I’m tired so I decided to rest here on a concrete slab...

“I could free you.. but what if you attack me?”

Oh, yes, I’m going to thank somebody for a bit of assistance by hurting them...

“I could ask for money, but what if you take it back when you’re freed?”

....you have a great opinion of people, don’t you?

“What’s the promise of a stranger worth? I can’t trust you.. No.. it’s too risky for me to free you..”

...well, now I know the sort of person you are...

It was true, too. So the person would only do something that was wanted in a situation if they benefitted from it more than whomever they helped, huh? Kane wasn’t one to ask for help, and certaintly not one to go looking for it, either. Hell, she was fairly sure she’d reject any help in this situation with venom if the figure had actually seen her clumsy fall. However, that wasn’t the case...at least she hoped so.

As the figure walked away, slowly and deliberately, obviously waiting to see if he could benefit, Kane sighed, shaking her head slightly. She pushed herself up and twisted as much as her waist would allow so that she was sitting on the block of concrete relatively normally, aside from the forced twist of her leg and the downward tilt of the concrete slab. Looking at how the metal rod had forced itself through her leg, she nodded slightly and twisted to face the slab again. She pushed herself back against the slight tilt of the slab and forced herself into a sitting position on her shins, with her knees bent. Reaching right hand down, she used the light from the moon to distinguish the dark metal rod from her black pants.

As her hand made contact with the rod, red sparks flew from her hand on the rod, and smaller ones around her throat. Since it would be a pain and just difficult to draw a transmutation circle in that time, she resorted to the red stones she had taken all those years ago from when she left the Organization. The rod broke cleanly, and allowed her to twist normally, sitting on the slab with her leg stretched in front of her to allow her to see to her leg better and remove the rod.

”....you know...” she said, giving a small sigh as she leaned to attempt to pull the rod out. ”...you shouldn’t ask for any sort of payment up-front.” She gave a small tug on the rod, but to no avail. ”If a person is any sort of decent, they’ll give you a reward after you’ve been kind enough to help them without thinking of how it could benefit you...”

Sitting back and scratching her head, she let that sink into the unknown person’s mind as she thought of possible ways to remove the rod without resorting to more Alchemy.

[Raichi]

It wasn't clear to Isha just yet that the female had used alchemy, after all he was facing his back to her when she did so. It wasn't until she was done talking he turned around, what she said being true words but in his case it was best to be cautious. He slowly moved closer to her as he pondered over his reply, wanting to explain himself without giving away any information.

"It's complicated. There's things I have to do.."

He stood before her, hesitating whether or not he should help her out. Eventually he figured out it didn't matter. If she got free by herself she would likely report his cloaked guise to the police. And for his length and the moonlight occasionally falling on his red eyes it wouldn't be long until his disguise would be linked to the missing ishvalan boy. No, either way it was better not to get on her bad side.

"But it doesn't matter anymore, I might as well do you the favor and hope for the best"

He wiped his sweaty hands on his cloak and grabbed hold of the big metal pole, still under the impression he would be able to handle her were she to attack him. He even figured he would someday even have to kill just to keep him and his friend a secret. Something he never did before and wasn't sure he could.

Meanwhile Shayem was starting to get worried, both seemed to keep their speaking to a minimum so it was hard to make up what they were saying. He was too scared to come out from underneath the bed though, at least hidden he felt a little safe. Again he started praying softly to himself, but soon after realized he wasn't of any use in this situation. On their way to central he had made some valuable decisions though, so it was definetly a good thing for Isha that he came along. But right now there was little he dared to do for his friend.

Isha used all his strength to pull the pole out of the leg and then took four steps backwards, rather keeping his distance with the stranger in case she would lash out. Confident in his alchemy, but if she carried a knife and was quick enough it could easilly be his dying day. It was more than clear he had to continue to keep a tough guy image, though his heart was beating in his chest.

"Don't do anything stupid. I'm stronger than you think"

(sorry for being small and for spelling mistakes, i'm on my bro's PC cuz the house is under construction, so my room is all smelly. His one's new though and doesn't have word installed yet so yea )