#RED ALERT! RED ALERT!#“Confirm what we just saw! What was it?!”
“Captain, the Fossey confirms it! We just had a massive spacial-temporal event of unusual symmetry. ORACLE sensors detected a pattern orange centered at the area of effect, then the lifeforce of every human being in the area of effect just ceased at the same time that energy anomaly came into existence! Then the solar eclipse happened and the energy mass just collapsed and we’re registering human life signs again!”
“Area of the anomaly coverage?”
“Several hundred kloms across. Confirm a pentacle substructure to it. No, make that TWO pentacle substructures.”
“That entity we saw, what is its status now?”
“Massive Blood Pattern Orange spike coinciding with the lifeforce blackout...then it switched to Blue. We’re still detecting it at the center of the anomaly zone, but it’s much weaker!”
“We have a match on the life force mass, Captain! We have a more than fifty percent pattern coincidence match with previous observed phenomena.”
“...Which phenomena, Mister Sable?”
“It’s flagged as a Phlegathon Event.”
“....”
“It is a Pattern Blue? Would you say it is an Angel?”
“Within an eighty percent match. It is still active and detectable at the observed anomaly center.”
“Then I am declaring a Code Imp and authorizing release of anti-Angel weaponry. Plot a tactical vector and firing solution on the Code Blue immediately!”
“Blue Pattern’s in the middle of densely populated area, Captain! Use of N-two, reflex, or positron weaponry may result in massive collateral damage at this range!”
”Understood, Mister Termonde! Are our Lances accurate enough for a surgical strike?”
“Yes, Captain, aside from sonic boom effects.”
“Prepare three Lances for firing, as soon as we have an accurate fix on the target!”
“For the record, Captain, may I remind you we’re dealing with a T-level five society down there?”
“Duly noted, Mister Angora! But we have apparently borne witness to an attempted Impact Event! We cannot allow the responsible entity another chance to try it again. We’ll worry about recovery of expended technology AFTER we’ve confirmed the entity’s neutralization. Fire when ready, Mister Termonde!”
“Aye-aye, Captain Hunter!”
In the belly of the battlecruiser, a large hatch opens, revealing a jaggedly-sharp array of angled ordnance.
A single large flat bladed projectile silently slides out of the bay with switchblade-like precision, the recently-charged positron bottles on its tail-end glowing with confined anti-matter violence. Once clear of the cruiser, there is a series of small, intensely bright flashes, as several of the bottles liberate their energies, instantly imparting their force to the Lance, which snap-accelerates away, towards the blue-green planet below.
<<Pitful Humans. Inferior Vermin. I hold nearly a million souls within me.>> The Homonculus known as ‘Father’ calmly stated as he laid waste all about him.
“KEEP FIRING!”
“Our weapons aren’t even scratching him!”
“More ammunition! Keep carving at him! Wear him down!”
“He can’t burn Philosophers’ Stones forever! He HAS to run out of power sometime!”
“Can you give me a specific time on that!”
<<Vermin! Especially you, Alchemist!>>
“AYIIIEEE!!!!”
”Hohenheim, can’t we DO anything?!”
“Don’t let him counterattack!”
<<Die!>>
“Damnit!”
“WE NEED MORE FIREPOWER!”
“What’s tha-”
Those present would later claim that they saw a flash high in the sky and heard a high chiming note before...
WHUD!
<<AYYYEEEEEEGGGGGGGGGGgg!!!!>>WHHOOOOMMMPPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
“YYYYYIIIIIIIIII!!!!”
”HANG ON!”
“WHAT THE---”
The resulting shockwave blew out all the remaining windows in the royal palace, sent loose debris flying, and bowled men over like toys.
“Ed! Alphonse!”
“What the heck just happened, Lieutenant!? What just happened?! Tell me! You’re my eyes!”
*“White Squad! Report! Report! What just happened?!”*
“Where’d that thing go?!”
“Was that an earthquake?”
“It came from the sky, I think!”
“WHERE’S THE DAMN BASTARD!!! HE CAN’T GET AWAY!!!!”
“I don’t sense anything!!!”
“Is he really gone...?”
“Confirm Pattern Blue just disipated, Captain! Direct hit!”
“Lance is apparently some forty-eighty meters underground by now.”
“Good. Stand down reserve Lance launches, but keep the system locked in just in case. Scramble a recon flight and CAP Seraphs with anti-Angel armaments and tell them to do a close fly-by recon to tell what the situation is on the ground. If it’s still down there and hiding, I want to know immediately. If it’s gone, we still need to recover the Lance.”
Tak.Tak.Tak.The being of truth looked up. The sound of footsteps in its realmwas unusual to say the least.
Equally unusual was the fact that the expected mortal wasn’t alone. The blue-haired, red-eyed, white-clad woman with the glacial bearing, leading the group was unexpected, as were the two heavily armored figures escorting.
If the being of truth had eyes, it would be blinking them.
//You//
“Yes. Me.”
//You’re not alone//
“No.”
The blue-haired woman broke in. “We’ve come for the boy. All of him. And the leg.”
//What are you going to offer in exchange? Your life? ...Or theirs?//
The blue-haired woman took up the conversation.
“This isn’t an exchange. It’s a liberation.”
//The Law of Equivalent Exchange demands a toll//
“The Law is irrelevent. It assumes a static cosmos that cannot generate energy or benefit. The Law is subject to change. Starting now.”
//You cannot change universal Truth as you see fit, nor meddle as you see fit without consequence. You presume too much. This I know, for I am ‘you’//
“Spare me the mind-games. We are here. We can touch you. We can hurt you.You arbitrarily take and give without compassion. We are here on a mission of mercy, but stand in our way, and we will offer you none. The boy.”
//You would threaten God?!//
“We’ve encountered many beings who claimed to be gods. Some more impressive than you. We killed them.”
//You dare?! You cannot harm m-//
NEVER MIND ME. I CAN WAIT A FEW MINUTES.
//Take the boy. Exit’s that way//
“And the leg.”
//Fine. And the leg//
“Come on, Al, everybody’s waiting for us!”
Always got to be a catch.