Fic - Stay Out of the Basement
Title --Stay Out of the Basement
Author-- cornerofmadness
Disclaimer -- Arakawa owns all
Rating -- teen
Characters/Pairing -- Roy, Riza, Chris, Hawkeye and a surprise
Word Count -- 2,671
Warning -- dead bodies, mad scientists
Summary -- Roy just wants to learn more alchemy. What he discovers is the stuff of nightmares.
Author’s Note --This was written for the spook_me ficathon for the prompt ‘mad scientist.’ Here’s my inspiration picture.
It needs a little more editing but time was short. I’ll be back to clean it up.
XXX
Roy could barely contain his excitement at getting to return to Central. The train ride had taken forever by his twelve year old reckoning. His butt felt numb and Riza had drooled on his shoulder after she fell asleep against him. He’d been annoyed at first, and then decided maybe having a girl nap on him wasn’t so bad.
Now the porter was taking forever to get their luggage. Roy had never cultivated patience. Something that made both his aunt and master frustrated. All the yelling in the world hadn’t gifted him any more patience and if you asked him, he had plenty of patience. Any why shouldn’t he be excited and frothing at the bit to get going.
He hadn’t seen Aunt Chris in months, so it would be nice to see her. Tobacco-scented letters were a poor substitute for his aunt. Even more exciting, Master Hawkeye had brought them to Central because he and another alchemist, Marion Kreyling, were meeting to share ideas with a third alchemist Leo Schemerhorn at his lab. It was going to be so cool. Roy had spent hours writing in his alchemy journal about all the things he hoped he'd learn.
Riza, he knew, hoped they could see fun things like the zoo and museum. While Roy would never say no to a good museum or a Xingese tiger, his money was on Master Hawkeye saying no to that. Maybe Aunt Chris or his sisters could take Riza.
“Do you have ants in your pants?” Hawkeye gave him an arched look.
Roy realized he'd been shifting his weight around in his boredom. “It's taking forever!”
Hawkeye rested a hand on Mustang's crown. “A good alchemist needs to have patience.”
“I do!”
Beside him, Riza snickered. Roy glared at her. What did she know anyhow? He had patience but it had limits, that's all. He could be patient as a stone waiting for a chemical reaction to happen. But standing around doing nothing, not so much? He hated doing nothing.
“Will your aunt laugh if I ask her about your patience?” Hawkeye smiled at him.
Roy glared harder. “Uh-huh,” he lied. Aunt Chris always said that about him too. No one understood him.
Both Hawkeyes rolled their eyes and Roy pointedly ignored them until their luggage finally came and they got into the taxi that would take them to Aunt Chris's old hotel. It might not be an ideal place for a young girl but Hawkeye was always broke. Even the tobacco he smoked was cheap and kinda stinky. All his money went into his alchemy. Luckily Riza was good with a darning needle and could handle the chickens in the yard without complaint. They didn't go hungry.
The drive across town didn't take too long. Cars had it all over horses. Roy yanked his luggage along with him as fast as he could. Aunt Chris met them in the lobby. She had on a clingy dress and had put on a few pounds since the last time she and Roy had taken a picture together but she was still so pretty. Hawkeye didn't seem to notice. He never noticed people much. Roy sometimes wondered if Riza was really his. Roy had learned about the birds and the bees a little early but he figured that would only help somewhere down the line now that he finally started seeing some of the things about girls he had been told about.
“You're looking fine, Roy-boy. Country life agrees with you. Who knew?” Aunt Chris ruffled his hair.
“He's afraid of chickens,” Riza said with another eye roll.
“I am not. That Rooster just doesn't like me.” Roy felt his ears go hot.
“He runs every time he sees the rooster.” Riza laughed.
“Riza, shush now.” Hawkeye smiled at Aunt Chris. “My daughter, Riza. You didn't get to meet her when we first talked about Roy coming to live with us.”
“Nice to meet you, Riza. I’m Madame Christmas. And it's very ironic Roy's afraid of roosters. The name of my bar is the Cock and Pearl.”
Hawkeye's wan cheeks colored a bit as if he got the hidden meaning. Roy knew there were various chicken statues in the place as if it were fooling anyone.
“Not afraid,” he protested again but no one was listening.
Aunt Chris and Master Hawkeye started talking about Roy's tenure with the alchemist so Roy took it upon himself to show Riza up to their rooms. Aunt Chris had said on the phone she was putting them in the tower suite. He should have thought before now what he could promise Riza to buy her silence in front of his sisters. This was going to cost him. He just knew it.
XXX
Riza already looked bored sitting in Schemerhorn's library but she had the sense to bring a book with her, another one of her mysteries. It wasn’t too bad. Roy kept stealing glances at it once he realized this library was most definitely not where Schemerhorn kept his alchemy texts. Most of the books were geography, history and biographical. Roy didn’t mind history but that’s not why he was here. Dammit, he wanted to learn alchemy, but Schemerhorn had taken one look at Roy and said ‘no apprentices allowed in the discussions.’ He could have stayed at home with his sisters and taken Riza to the zoo. It would be good to have her goodwill in the bank for the next time he made her mad. It wasn’t like he tried to. There was no predicting what would upset her. Roy suspected she might be a little crazy.
Hearing footsteps, Roy perked up and quit reading over Riza’s shoulder. Maybe Master Hawkeye had convinced Schemerhorn to let Roy sit in. He could learn so much. Instead, he spotted a boy about his age coming out of a deeper part of the library. To Roy’s surprise, the stranger looked a little like him with the same almond-shaped eyes and black hair, only he wore it long. Roy had wanted to, a queue like his mother’s people wore but Master Hawkeye said long hair was nothing but a wick for bad things to happen. It wasn’t like Roy planned on dragging it through an open flame or a beaker of acid.
Roy wondered if the kid was part Xingese, too. He stood up to introduce himself only to earn himself a disdainful look. Maybe the kid was shy. “Hi, I’m Roy and this is Riza. We’re here with Master Hawkeye.”
“You must be Miss Kreyling’s apprentice,” Riza said, surprising Roy. How did she know that? The master had said nothing to him. Now that he took a better look, he saw the telltale sign in the kid’s right pocket, the bulge of a notepad for quickie transmutation circle sketches.
The kid nodded. “Mistress said someone was coming in from the country. Hopefully you didn’t track cow pie in here.” He smirked.
Riza frowned then went back to reading her book, snubbing him as effectively as he had done to them. Roy, on the other hand, wanted to punch him. What a brat! “I’m from Central!”
“Really?” Brat looked him over again then shrugged. “Not from a family worth knowing about or I’d have seen you at a party thrown by the Armstrongs or the Wisehearts.”
Roy knew those families, some of the richest in Central. “My aunt knows them.” Of course she was either spying on them or for them, but Brat-face didn’t need to know that.
“Oh? Is she a maid?” Brat-face’s smirk grew.
Roy clenched his fists and Riza tugged on his shirt as if to warn him not to start anything. “You didn’t tell us who you are.”
“And I don’t plan on it. I was just killing time, letting our masters get deep into their conversation before going to see why Schemerhorn didn’t want us in his laboratory.”
“So was I.” Roy stalked toward the door. He heard Riza sigh and shut her book. Apparently she wasn’t going to leave him alone with Brat-face. “Coming?”
Brat-face snorted at him and the trio walked through the house with so much tension Roy was shocked it didn’t just explode on them. They picked up their pace when the thick door they had seen on the quick tour of the place came into view. It opened suddenly and Schemerhorn came out holding a jar of greenish fluid. In it swam a heart. Roy grimaced and Brat-face’s eyes gleamed as if he wanted to get a hold of that jar to see the heart up close.
The old man scowled. “What are you three doing down here?”
“We were just looking around, sir,” Roy said, trying to be polite. Brat-face didn’t seem inclined to answer Schemerhorn.
“I don’t know what your masters were thinking bringing apprentices to this. Go play or something but stay away from my lab.” Schemerhorn pushed past them and headed back to his meeting with their masters a scant two doors away.
“Play? What does he think we are? Babies?” Brat-face harrumphed.
“Obviously.” Roy looked at the door. “Still, wish we could have seen inside.”
“You give up too easily.” Brat-face laughed.
“Our Masters will hear if we try to get through that door,” Roy said.
“And it would be rude,” Riza said.
“Whatever. There has to be another way in. I’m going outside and see if there’s a back door or a window,” Brat-face replied.
Roy was sorry he hadn’t thought of that. “I’ll come with you. Riza, you can go read if you want. It’s not like you like alchemy anyhow.”
She gave him a look that said he was the dumbest boy alive and followed them outside without another word. It didn’t take very long to find a door half hidden by a hedgerow. It was in the right place to be the lab or a crappy basement. It might still be more interesting than the library either way.
Brat-face tried the door. “Locked.”
“Guess that’s it.” Roy sighed. This day sucked worse than Hawkeye’s stupid rooster.
“Like I said. You’re a quitter.” Brat-face took out his tablet and quickly sketched something. He pressed his palm against it and the lock exploded.
“Real subtle.” Roy rolled his eyes. It was kinda cool but he couldn’t let Brat-face know that.
Brat-face didn’t reply, nor did he wait on Roy and Riza. He went inside, feeling along a wall for the light switch. “I don’t think this place is wired. Better leave the door open.”
“It smells funny,” Riza said, stepping inside.
Roy peered around. All he saw were barrels everywhere. Riza was right; it smelled bad, like a mix of pickling brine and decay. “I think this is the basement.”
“It’s definitely not the lab,” Brat-face pouted.
“I think I’m going back to the library. This is boring,” Roy said but he wasn’t bored. He felt nervous, like something was very wrong here.
“Don’t you want to know what’s in the barrels?” Brat-face asked.
“Probably just booze or something. People make their own, you know, sometimes.” Roy shrugged, thinking there was no way it was moonshine.
“Or chemicals for his lab. Dad keeps some,” Riza said dubiously. She wasn’t wrong. Master Hawkeye did but not barrels full. It would be dangerous.
“Easy enough to check.” Brat-face didn’t go for his exploding alchemy technique this time - Roy desperately wanted a look at that transmutation circle, just a glimpse. He was pretty good at memorizing. He could go from there. Brat-face picked up a nearby hammer hanging on the wall with a couple of saws. He pried the lid off and three of them peered in.
A high-pitched scream echoed in the basement and Roy hoped it was Riza and not him making that sound. He felt like screaming. They collided with each other and three of them almost ended up in the barrel with the thing staring up at them. In the greenish fluid the heart had been in, a head floated and fingers poked out but it hadn’t quite been human. It looked like something had been melded to it and then the whole thing jammed in like someone had canned it for winter.
Roy didn’t stop running until he was well past the hedgerow. Riza outdistanced him like he had his shoes tied together. Brat-face brought up the rear, hesitating like he might want to go back for a better look. Roy realized the cuss word-filled litany ringing in his ears was from him. He didn’t know what to do.
He heard his name being called and Roy spun around. He saw Hawkeye with Kreyling and Schemerhorn racing across the yard. Schemerhorn stumbled to a stop when he saw the basement door standing open then he went very red.
“You damned kids. I didn’t want to have to do this. It will be a loss but you’ve given me no choice.”
“What’s going on?” Hawkeye demanded to know.
“He’s got a dead body in a barrel!” Roy said.
“Leo?” Kreyling turned to look at the older alchemist.
He shrugged. “Chimeric research. It doesn’t always go as planned. And now I have some young bodies to work with so it works out for me. Not so much for you.” He reached for something under his shirt.
“He’s going to kill us!” Riza cried.
“Like hell.” Kreyling pounded her two hefty rings together and the ground Schemerhorn stood on exploded. They must have been transmutation circles like the one Brat-face drew.
Schemerhorn scrambled backwards on all fours. Hawkeye pulled out his lighter and flicked it on, pressing his fingers to the medallion he always wore. A ring of fire hemmed Schemerhorn in. The alchemist cursed loudly but Hawkeye didn’t drop his defenses. Roy knew his master had never been cooler.
“Roy, Riza, go inside and call the military police. Tell the operator you have an emergency with a State Alchemist,” Hawkeye said.
“Military? Are you sure?” Kreyling asked.
“He’s their problem. Just hope they believe the kids.”
Roy froze for a moment then did as his master asked, too afraid to do anything else. If the adults stopped holding Schemerhorn where he was, they might all be pickled in the basement. He’d do whatever it took to make the military believe his story.
XXX
“There’s nothing in the paper.” Riza set down the third one she had gone through that evening. “Maybe in the morning?”
Aunt Chris took a drag on her cigarette, shaking her head. “Some things aren’t safe for the general public to know. A State Alchemist trying to turn people into animals then pickling the mistakes in his basement is definitely one of those.”
“I was going to yell at them for snooping but it was a good thing they did.” Hawkeye took a cigarette from Aunt Chris when she offered. Roy wished he wouldn’t. The man had picked up a cough lately. He wished his aunt wouldn’t smoke either. It stank.
“We were bored. I’m going to have nightmares for a month.” Roy scowled. “And I didn’t even learn anything other than that brat had a cool technique that made things explode.”
Hawkeye made an unhappy sound. “And Kreyling must be getting sloppy teaching something that dangerous to a boy that young. Nothing good will come of it.”
“Are you going back home early now that your host is probably being executed by the military as we speak,” Chris said and Riza startled. Roy doubted she was used to such blunt talk.
“I shouldn’t impose since I’m no longer doing business here.”
“I’d like to see my nephew a while longer. It’s not an imposition,” Chris said and Hawkeye didn’t put up much of a fuss.
“Tomorrow, we can take Riza to the zoo,” Roy offered, happy when they took him up on that idea. Still, he didn’t think the zoo was going to balance what they had seen in the basement. No, that was going to haunt them for a long time.
Author-- cornerofmadness
Disclaimer -- Arakawa owns all
Rating -- teen
Characters/Pairing -- Roy, Riza, Chris, Hawkeye and a surprise
Word Count -- 2,671
Warning -- dead bodies, mad scientists
Summary -- Roy just wants to learn more alchemy. What he discovers is the stuff of nightmares.
Author’s Note --This was written for the spook_me ficathon for the prompt ‘mad scientist.’ Here’s my inspiration picture.
It needs a little more editing but time was short. I’ll be back to clean it up.
XXX
Roy could barely contain his excitement at getting to return to Central. The train ride had taken forever by his twelve year old reckoning. His butt felt numb and Riza had drooled on his shoulder after she fell asleep against him. He’d been annoyed at first, and then decided maybe having a girl nap on him wasn’t so bad.
Now the porter was taking forever to get their luggage. Roy had never cultivated patience. Something that made both his aunt and master frustrated. All the yelling in the world hadn’t gifted him any more patience and if you asked him, he had plenty of patience. Any why shouldn’t he be excited and frothing at the bit to get going.
He hadn’t seen Aunt Chris in months, so it would be nice to see her. Tobacco-scented letters were a poor substitute for his aunt. Even more exciting, Master Hawkeye had brought them to Central because he and another alchemist, Marion Kreyling, were meeting to share ideas with a third alchemist Leo Schemerhorn at his lab. It was going to be so cool. Roy had spent hours writing in his alchemy journal about all the things he hoped he'd learn.
Riza, he knew, hoped they could see fun things like the zoo and museum. While Roy would never say no to a good museum or a Xingese tiger, his money was on Master Hawkeye saying no to that. Maybe Aunt Chris or his sisters could take Riza.
“Do you have ants in your pants?” Hawkeye gave him an arched look.
Roy realized he'd been shifting his weight around in his boredom. “It's taking forever!”
Hawkeye rested a hand on Mustang's crown. “A good alchemist needs to have patience.”
“I do!”
Beside him, Riza snickered. Roy glared at her. What did she know anyhow? He had patience but it had limits, that's all. He could be patient as a stone waiting for a chemical reaction to happen. But standing around doing nothing, not so much? He hated doing nothing.
“Will your aunt laugh if I ask her about your patience?” Hawkeye smiled at him.
Roy glared harder. “Uh-huh,” he lied. Aunt Chris always said that about him too. No one understood him.
Both Hawkeyes rolled their eyes and Roy pointedly ignored them until their luggage finally came and they got into the taxi that would take them to Aunt Chris's old hotel. It might not be an ideal place for a young girl but Hawkeye was always broke. Even the tobacco he smoked was cheap and kinda stinky. All his money went into his alchemy. Luckily Riza was good with a darning needle and could handle the chickens in the yard without complaint. They didn't go hungry.
The drive across town didn't take too long. Cars had it all over horses. Roy yanked his luggage along with him as fast as he could. Aunt Chris met them in the lobby. She had on a clingy dress and had put on a few pounds since the last time she and Roy had taken a picture together but she was still so pretty. Hawkeye didn't seem to notice. He never noticed people much. Roy sometimes wondered if Riza was really his. Roy had learned about the birds and the bees a little early but he figured that would only help somewhere down the line now that he finally started seeing some of the things about girls he had been told about.
“You're looking fine, Roy-boy. Country life agrees with you. Who knew?” Aunt Chris ruffled his hair.
“He's afraid of chickens,” Riza said with another eye roll.
“I am not. That Rooster just doesn't like me.” Roy felt his ears go hot.
“He runs every time he sees the rooster.” Riza laughed.
“Riza, shush now.” Hawkeye smiled at Aunt Chris. “My daughter, Riza. You didn't get to meet her when we first talked about Roy coming to live with us.”
“Nice to meet you, Riza. I’m Madame Christmas. And it's very ironic Roy's afraid of roosters. The name of my bar is the Cock and Pearl.”
Hawkeye's wan cheeks colored a bit as if he got the hidden meaning. Roy knew there were various chicken statues in the place as if it were fooling anyone.
“Not afraid,” he protested again but no one was listening.
Aunt Chris and Master Hawkeye started talking about Roy's tenure with the alchemist so Roy took it upon himself to show Riza up to their rooms. Aunt Chris had said on the phone she was putting them in the tower suite. He should have thought before now what he could promise Riza to buy her silence in front of his sisters. This was going to cost him. He just knew it.
XXX
Riza already looked bored sitting in Schemerhorn's library but she had the sense to bring a book with her, another one of her mysteries. It wasn’t too bad. Roy kept stealing glances at it once he realized this library was most definitely not where Schemerhorn kept his alchemy texts. Most of the books were geography, history and biographical. Roy didn’t mind history but that’s not why he was here. Dammit, he wanted to learn alchemy, but Schemerhorn had taken one look at Roy and said ‘no apprentices allowed in the discussions.’ He could have stayed at home with his sisters and taken Riza to the zoo. It would be good to have her goodwill in the bank for the next time he made her mad. It wasn’t like he tried to. There was no predicting what would upset her. Roy suspected she might be a little crazy.
Hearing footsteps, Roy perked up and quit reading over Riza’s shoulder. Maybe Master Hawkeye had convinced Schemerhorn to let Roy sit in. He could learn so much. Instead, he spotted a boy about his age coming out of a deeper part of the library. To Roy’s surprise, the stranger looked a little like him with the same almond-shaped eyes and black hair, only he wore it long. Roy had wanted to, a queue like his mother’s people wore but Master Hawkeye said long hair was nothing but a wick for bad things to happen. It wasn’t like Roy planned on dragging it through an open flame or a beaker of acid.
Roy wondered if the kid was part Xingese, too. He stood up to introduce himself only to earn himself a disdainful look. Maybe the kid was shy. “Hi, I’m Roy and this is Riza. We’re here with Master Hawkeye.”
“You must be Miss Kreyling’s apprentice,” Riza said, surprising Roy. How did she know that? The master had said nothing to him. Now that he took a better look, he saw the telltale sign in the kid’s right pocket, the bulge of a notepad for quickie transmutation circle sketches.
The kid nodded. “Mistress said someone was coming in from the country. Hopefully you didn’t track cow pie in here.” He smirked.
Riza frowned then went back to reading her book, snubbing him as effectively as he had done to them. Roy, on the other hand, wanted to punch him. What a brat! “I’m from Central!”
“Really?” Brat looked him over again then shrugged. “Not from a family worth knowing about or I’d have seen you at a party thrown by the Armstrongs or the Wisehearts.”
Roy knew those families, some of the richest in Central. “My aunt knows them.” Of course she was either spying on them or for them, but Brat-face didn’t need to know that.
“Oh? Is she a maid?” Brat-face’s smirk grew.
Roy clenched his fists and Riza tugged on his shirt as if to warn him not to start anything. “You didn’t tell us who you are.”
“And I don’t plan on it. I was just killing time, letting our masters get deep into their conversation before going to see why Schemerhorn didn’t want us in his laboratory.”
“So was I.” Roy stalked toward the door. He heard Riza sigh and shut her book. Apparently she wasn’t going to leave him alone with Brat-face. “Coming?”
Brat-face snorted at him and the trio walked through the house with so much tension Roy was shocked it didn’t just explode on them. They picked up their pace when the thick door they had seen on the quick tour of the place came into view. It opened suddenly and Schemerhorn came out holding a jar of greenish fluid. In it swam a heart. Roy grimaced and Brat-face’s eyes gleamed as if he wanted to get a hold of that jar to see the heart up close.
The old man scowled. “What are you three doing down here?”
“We were just looking around, sir,” Roy said, trying to be polite. Brat-face didn’t seem inclined to answer Schemerhorn.
“I don’t know what your masters were thinking bringing apprentices to this. Go play or something but stay away from my lab.” Schemerhorn pushed past them and headed back to his meeting with their masters a scant two doors away.
“Play? What does he think we are? Babies?” Brat-face harrumphed.
“Obviously.” Roy looked at the door. “Still, wish we could have seen inside.”
“You give up too easily.” Brat-face laughed.
“Our Masters will hear if we try to get through that door,” Roy said.
“And it would be rude,” Riza said.
“Whatever. There has to be another way in. I’m going outside and see if there’s a back door or a window,” Brat-face replied.
Roy was sorry he hadn’t thought of that. “I’ll come with you. Riza, you can go read if you want. It’s not like you like alchemy anyhow.”
She gave him a look that said he was the dumbest boy alive and followed them outside without another word. It didn’t take very long to find a door half hidden by a hedgerow. It was in the right place to be the lab or a crappy basement. It might still be more interesting than the library either way.
Brat-face tried the door. “Locked.”
“Guess that’s it.” Roy sighed. This day sucked worse than Hawkeye’s stupid rooster.
“Like I said. You’re a quitter.” Brat-face took out his tablet and quickly sketched something. He pressed his palm against it and the lock exploded.
“Real subtle.” Roy rolled his eyes. It was kinda cool but he couldn’t let Brat-face know that.
Brat-face didn’t reply, nor did he wait on Roy and Riza. He went inside, feeling along a wall for the light switch. “I don’t think this place is wired. Better leave the door open.”
“It smells funny,” Riza said, stepping inside.
Roy peered around. All he saw were barrels everywhere. Riza was right; it smelled bad, like a mix of pickling brine and decay. “I think this is the basement.”
“It’s definitely not the lab,” Brat-face pouted.
“I think I’m going back to the library. This is boring,” Roy said but he wasn’t bored. He felt nervous, like something was very wrong here.
“Don’t you want to know what’s in the barrels?” Brat-face asked.
“Probably just booze or something. People make their own, you know, sometimes.” Roy shrugged, thinking there was no way it was moonshine.
“Or chemicals for his lab. Dad keeps some,” Riza said dubiously. She wasn’t wrong. Master Hawkeye did but not barrels full. It would be dangerous.
“Easy enough to check.” Brat-face didn’t go for his exploding alchemy technique this time - Roy desperately wanted a look at that transmutation circle, just a glimpse. He was pretty good at memorizing. He could go from there. Brat-face picked up a nearby hammer hanging on the wall with a couple of saws. He pried the lid off and three of them peered in.
A high-pitched scream echoed in the basement and Roy hoped it was Riza and not him making that sound. He felt like screaming. They collided with each other and three of them almost ended up in the barrel with the thing staring up at them. In the greenish fluid the heart had been in, a head floated and fingers poked out but it hadn’t quite been human. It looked like something had been melded to it and then the whole thing jammed in like someone had canned it for winter.
Roy didn’t stop running until he was well past the hedgerow. Riza outdistanced him like he had his shoes tied together. Brat-face brought up the rear, hesitating like he might want to go back for a better look. Roy realized the cuss word-filled litany ringing in his ears was from him. He didn’t know what to do.
He heard his name being called and Roy spun around. He saw Hawkeye with Kreyling and Schemerhorn racing across the yard. Schemerhorn stumbled to a stop when he saw the basement door standing open then he went very red.
“You damned kids. I didn’t want to have to do this. It will be a loss but you’ve given me no choice.”
“What’s going on?” Hawkeye demanded to know.
“He’s got a dead body in a barrel!” Roy said.
“Leo?” Kreyling turned to look at the older alchemist.
He shrugged. “Chimeric research. It doesn’t always go as planned. And now I have some young bodies to work with so it works out for me. Not so much for you.” He reached for something under his shirt.
“He’s going to kill us!” Riza cried.
“Like hell.” Kreyling pounded her two hefty rings together and the ground Schemerhorn stood on exploded. They must have been transmutation circles like the one Brat-face drew.
Schemerhorn scrambled backwards on all fours. Hawkeye pulled out his lighter and flicked it on, pressing his fingers to the medallion he always wore. A ring of fire hemmed Schemerhorn in. The alchemist cursed loudly but Hawkeye didn’t drop his defenses. Roy knew his master had never been cooler.
“Roy, Riza, go inside and call the military police. Tell the operator you have an emergency with a State Alchemist,” Hawkeye said.
“Military? Are you sure?” Kreyling asked.
“He’s their problem. Just hope they believe the kids.”
Roy froze for a moment then did as his master asked, too afraid to do anything else. If the adults stopped holding Schemerhorn where he was, they might all be pickled in the basement. He’d do whatever it took to make the military believe his story.
XXX
“There’s nothing in the paper.” Riza set down the third one she had gone through that evening. “Maybe in the morning?”
Aunt Chris took a drag on her cigarette, shaking her head. “Some things aren’t safe for the general public to know. A State Alchemist trying to turn people into animals then pickling the mistakes in his basement is definitely one of those.”
“I was going to yell at them for snooping but it was a good thing they did.” Hawkeye took a cigarette from Aunt Chris when she offered. Roy wished he wouldn’t. The man had picked up a cough lately. He wished his aunt wouldn’t smoke either. It stank.
“We were bored. I’m going to have nightmares for a month.” Roy scowled. “And I didn’t even learn anything other than that brat had a cool technique that made things explode.”
Hawkeye made an unhappy sound. “And Kreyling must be getting sloppy teaching something that dangerous to a boy that young. Nothing good will come of it.”
“Are you going back home early now that your host is probably being executed by the military as we speak,” Chris said and Riza startled. Roy doubted she was used to such blunt talk.
“I shouldn’t impose since I’m no longer doing business here.”
“I’d like to see my nephew a while longer. It’s not an imposition,” Chris said and Hawkeye didn’t put up much of a fuss.
“Tomorrow, we can take Riza to the zoo,” Roy offered, happy when they took him up on that idea. Still, he didn’t think the zoo was going to balance what they had seen in the basement. No, that was going to haunt them for a long time.