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Flight was a feat he’d spent years honing, and in spite of its objective pragmatism and unending novelty, you could never quite beat a good, uneventful train ride. Plus it was a more reliable means of entering densely populated regions, and could better handle luggage or asset management.
Disembarking out onto Central City’s main train station brought a mix of memories and emotions he’d not had cause to explore recently. Consequentially, he took a moment to marvel at the city’s light-smeared sky, the map of stars obscured beyond uselessness but the framing buildings beautiful.
It was night, maybe late evening, and he had a bit of time before he would have to steer himself off over to his regular lodging. There were a few eateries he had fond feelings for nearby, best go see what might be open at this late hour.
Ed spoke briefly with an officer on the shipment of the luggage to Ms. Juliet’s home, and the assets to the lab green house, then he was off.
Finding an open restaurant was far easier here, in a place of many people, than he could ever get used to.
The walking had bugged him more than it should have (must be a storm coming in), a quick touch of alchemical help to the central nervous system and the soreness-induced-nausea evaporated. It really was a handy trick.
He was seated, ordered, and began to scribble an entry into his journal, planning out topics for his call to Alphonse back at their childhood home. Someone was glancing at him.
In the few years since their separation, Ed had quickly grown accustomed to garnering less attention, which suited him just fine as there was no longer a hulking mass of pointed metal lumbering giddily beside him to distract from. Some selfish part of him missed it..
He was glad for First’s gift, of course, and it certainly was for the best– But it had also upended their lives in ways that left an ache in his chest.
A call to Alphonse, some sent letters, and he would feel fine again.
The person who he’d caught staring didn’t stop. He smiled nicely to them, then went back to drafting his letter, weighing down the pages with a small rock he kept in his pocket.
Sometimes it bothered him when people paid that uncomfortable, extra bit of attention. The man had doubtlessly noticed the absence on Ed’s right side, where he’d transmuted the sleeve away into smooth fabric. Usually, when they stared, they’d quickly correct themselves. The reason he didn’t mind so much was that this man had some rather extensive scarring across his face, which made it feel less like a ‘Ouch, how does that guy even survive’ and more of a ‘Buddy, how dare you have a good seamster’. It made him chuckle.
His meal arrived. He ate, paid, and left.
The man (or perhaps it was some other guy with a large X on his face) came to Ed sometime later, during the walk to Ms. Juliet’s.
“Hey, you’re Edward Elric, the state alchemist, correct?” The stranger said in a voice equal parts grave and resigned.
Ah.
The look had been accusatory, then.
“I was a state alchemist,” Ed began, “But I’ve switched departments to something closer to research and..” Confidential. “Public infrastructure.”
“That’s good, then.” The stranger turned away, apparently appeased.
It was a bit of an odd interaction, honestly. “Have a good night, sir,” Ed called lightly before meandering off.
The call to Alphonse went as expected, all subjects carefully couched and planned. Al said he’d been helping a local shepherd recently whom he was considering apprenticing under.
It was a little funny to think of Alphonse, the rambunctious, sportier, bolder sibling, sitting on a rock somewhere and watching sheep graze all day. But, well, Al was going to need to figure out for himself what he was and wasn’t suited for. Who knows, he might just turn out to be the best sheep-watching twerp in all of Amestris.
The call ended and he dialed in a relative on his dad’s side, checking the status of some things and giving updates on others.
Information swapped and goodbyes bidden, he prepared for the evening and fell easily asleep.
“Gregory, you’re looking well.” Edward greeted to a staff member he’d by now memorized. Gregory was a quadrupedal chimera who’d once been an incarcerated soldier.
The chimera returned the formality and quickly escorted him to where he was needed.
“I’ve heard a distressing rumour,” Edward began when the two were going down an elevator.
His escort nodded, “They’re rolling out tightened security, sir, you will be assigned a body guard within the week.”
“What?”
Pause.
“After Basque Grand.. I don’t believe the higher ups are willing to risk such vital assets, I assumed you’d heard by now.”
That name rang a bell in the back of his mind. “I’m in the city to check on something about the red water, someone under Grand pulled a stunt I’ll be stuck cleaning up after.” Again. “What’s this about the Iron Blood alchemist?”
“He’s dead, sir.”
“Dead?” Did that idiot go mess with the water himself? “How did he die?”
“Murder.”
Oh, okay. Ed settled, this wasn’t his business. “I’m impressed someone was able to take out a thug of his stature, I know he specialized in industrial weaponry and combat. Was it foul play?”
“It’s being investigated now, sir,”
He watched the lights indicate their near arrival. “Alright, keep me posted.”
Central city, like some other of Amestris’ urban areas, was arranged with various laboratories carefully arranged and fully accessible via the underground trolleys or walkways. From above, it was exceedingly obvious where each was per how… circular the layout was.
And just as foolhardy as arranging your cities in an easy circle for any alchemist worth their salt to capitalize on, it had been easy enough to map the labs out from a bird’s view. It was how he’d known there were more than two, after all.
The layers of the city were.. Curious. It was an intricate network of tunnels and levels, a vertical work camp here and an underground industrial plant there.. beneath all that was First with his weird obsession with fluorescent lights and beneath that lie the sunken cities, far enough down to feel like summer no matter the season.
From elevator to trolley and from trolley to lab, he went to the secretary (who had thumbs) and showed his credentials. “I would like reports on the CCS’s status and on soil samples acrossed the grid… And notify Lab Five security that I will be stopping by for a- To inspect certain safety concerns that have come to my attention.”
“Yes, sir, and I will notify your brother of your arrival.”
He waved her off, “That isn’t necessary, William’s busy enough handling some mess in Eastern. Excuse me,” He took to a familiar hall and pulled a lab coat over his usual, insulated one, forming a circle with his thumb and fingertip to transmute the fibers to near frigidness. He really needed to add water packs to help sustain the effect.
The team for the Red Water project was too scant for his liking. It suited well for secrecy, but for expediency and basic maintenance it was downright sloppy. It didn’t help that nearly everyone they did make available to choose for staffing were ex-convicts serving on less than consentful terms.
The project was important, that was the excuse for the frequent mess making and hazardous handling. One day, he would be able to expand on the materials and find newer, better means that could work faster, detoxify faster, last longer,.. But not today.
Today, and yesterday, and yesteryear, have all been spent with one main focus: damage control.
The Red Water was vital for homunculus healthcare; a not unsubstantial portion of the country’s citizenry, but it was also vital for medical research more broadly, not to mention the backbone of alchemical research for decades innumerable. And though it was important, it was also highly, highly dangerous in its early forms. Dangerous to ingest, dangerous to inhale, and corrosive to boot. It leached from ancient pipes and the many open-air underground waterways, encroaching into farm fields and tap water across the country.
Containment breech was a first priority to anyone with any sense to them. It was this kind of careless failure that had brought Edward into the project in the first place.
Gregory caught up to him while he was transmuting away aches and inflammation. “Doctor Elric,” He loved it when they called him that, “I believe your brother Envy should be notified.”
Ed snatched up some essentials; a mask, clipboard, select files, bag, etcetera. He loosed his unique little trick to let one of the stranger consequences of bio-medical experimentation go uncovered. It was weird, and often inconvenient, but something he felt oddly proud of.
He, Edward Elric, had been one of the first human test subjects to achieve a limb transplantation.. mostly successfully. He was surrounded by chimera, so it hardly mattered, though it did make him want to devote far more time and energy to trying to uncover the mechanics of his little quirk.
Homunculi, as beings created outside of ordinary practices, often had some aspect to them which functioned with an internal logic outside of natural laws. It was how his brother had been off Definitely Not impersonating him out in Eastern, and how Miss Douglas could convert her body mass into pure H2O at will.
Someday he would find a means of replication.. Just not today.
(If he could, imagine the breakthroughs in tissue restoration! Organ donation as both a concept and industry could evaporate overnight if he could just find a way to cook up the parts using the same means as Juliet made herself from water, or Will changed his body into new shapes with seemingly the only limitation of his own imagination.)
Gregory repeated himself and Ed sighed, looking at him sideways while crouched in front of a stubbornly locked supply cabinet he liked to hide his snacks in. “A surprise inspection doesn’t work if they know you’re coming.”
“But, sir, you already sent word for your arrival.”
Yeah… “I.. have to. For security.” Pause. He shrugged, “It’s a homunculus thing, some of us are a bit physically reactive to certain chemical enhancers, and I just know Tucker-” He stopped himself to internally seethe.
He hated that man. It was mutual, and the only cause for cooperation they had now was for professional matters and project cohesion. Which.
Okay, a lot about.. everything was sloppy, but it was like Tucker was doing it on purpose! He wasn’t even keeping up in his own field, he’d been wildly outclassed in the creation of chimeras (he only made bipeds) and his efforts in organic research were simply pathetic!
“.. Mr. Tucker is less than competent. I do not want my staff being exposed to hazardous materials when safety precautions could so easily be maintained.” He stashed some candy into his briefcase. “Has transport been arranged, Mr. Gregory?”
“Yes, sir, they will be arriving shortly.”
“Brilliant. Want some jerky?” Gregory, like most of Tucker’s victims, had their diet medically restricted; chocolate was often poisonous to them. Ed liked sharing when he snuck a snack in, it felt mischievous and fun.
“No thank you, sir.
“Alright, more for me.”
“Masks on, people.” Ed ordered on entry to the lab. He was accompanied by his escort (handler), a hex-limbed quad walker who served as his head assistant in this region, two security leads, and a small handful of chimeras who’d worked in either chemical handling or botany before their convictions. Most of them had thumbs by now, as a requirement for the position, and some could even walk on two legs for short stints of time.
Mobility aids for such a crudely crafted demographic were.. another matter on the docket list. Some of their equipment had come by commission and others had needed to be personally designed and transmuted on-sight. The masks, for instance, were up to code, but had needed to be remade to match the face shapes while still ensuring no worrisome substances passing through the material or slipping through the sides.
Most of the locations he worked in weren’t in densely populated areas, which was to say, the present team consisted almost entirely of new faces– Or, more honestly, of people he’d only known long enough to train and assign tasks to before scampering back off to where the real work was. He also visited occasionally to ensure the equipment wasn’t breaking or falling below his standards.
“Have there been any updates on reformatory operations, Dr. Elric?” The one with six limbs who looked as if she’d been designed after the sphinx inquired.
“From the Sewing Life alchemist? No, he’s off playing in La La land. And the Silver Wolf alchemist is. Uhm. Out of commission.” He swallowed guiltily, then laughed, “But! There is a promising researcher in Western who we can incentivise into the project! We just need the right phrasing for the up-in-ups. Aaaaand, once I get my hands on Silver’s research, it can be pushed to animal testing by year’s end!”
He shouldn’t give them false hope like that, it was wrong and gross. Silver’s team wasn’t going to turn around and talk to him of all people after the last fiasco. More than that, any attempts to persuade or pester anyone with relevant authority on un-chimeraizing the dog people back into human people had, in summary, not gone well.
He’d even asked William and even he wouldn’t budge. He insisted that such a reversal was foolhardy, that even if it could be done with a low risk of mortality, doing so was just asking for state secrets to leak out into the public.
A lot of said secrets were utterly needless. Yes, the red water was dangerous and granting public awareness could certain induce hysteria, heavens knows that could lead to hazards of its own, but the body plans of the chimera Tucker kept pumping out was… bad? It was a bad design? It was useless? It made every day life that much more difficult? What even was the point? Why bother having workers when the workers couldn’t open most doors???
The greenhouse wasn’t doing as well as he’d hoped, a lot of the specimens hadn’t been hardy enough to survive as filters.
“Ms. Heidi,” Ed addressed, surveying the minimal progress, “Are all of the plants from the same manufacturer?”
“They come from the same growery just out of the city.”
“And each section is a different species?”
“Yes, sir, they’re the ones you requested.”
“Perfect, thank you.” Pause. “Please remove from the order list everything from floodplains and wetlands, …and succulents, as well. They don’t seem to be doing too well.”
“Understood, sir.” She said, scribbling the change to her board. He’d tasked her with managing everything in this city, leaving her in charge of who does what and what goes where in his absence.
“Do you think we should commission for a proper greenhouse? A real one?” He asked suddenly.
Heidi looked at him.
“One with everything actually in the dirt, so the roots can form? Most of the rural labs have been showing– Actually, yeah, let’s try trees!” He grinned, she leaned away. He corrected himself, remembering his serrated smile. “I need to make a systematic review for it still, but woody plants have been showing some promise across the board.”
“Sir, doesn’t that pose a risk of contagion..?” As the person in charge of making sure no one spilt poison onto the earth when he was gone, she would be the one to worry.
“Not if the dirt and water system inside aren’t connected to anything outside; we can have there be cement or metal layering around the garden, like a giant pot!”
“Or we can fill a pool with dirt.” A team member whose name he forgot said while operating their manual assist. It was built like a walker with a few levers connected to a few mechanical arms, allowing the bipedal team members to manipulate objects without having to sit on the ground.
“Yes! We can do exactly that! Who would we need for it?” And without waiting for a response, “Someone who specializes in forestry, probably.. Someone to make sure nothing can leak out, so we’ll need to contact a hazmat or containment team. We’ll need more than one, to test out different biomes, maybe give wetland flora another go… Definitely going to try getting Feltcher, if I can.. Wait, let me write this down.”
“I already am, sir.” Heidi said tiredly.
“Right! You do that! I’m going to go check on something upstairs!”
“Sir-” Gregory started, making to intersect him but Ed was faster.
“I’ll-be-back-soon-don’t-die-byyyeeeeeeeeeeeee.”
The door closed and he sped down a few halls, stopping to check if he were alone before breathing out in relief.
Crowds he could handle, but prolonged group interaction left him groggy.
He rubbed his head and checked the time, pocketed his watch, smoothed his hair, and pressed on. There would likely be a fight soon of the colourful variety.
Tucker came to him while he was glowering at the mess of marks on the floor and ceiling. “Edward?” The behemoth of a man breathed in his choked voice. “I did not expect you back in the city for another few months.”
“Yeah, and I didn’t know you’d go and divert red water to Central. What were you thinking?” He bit out, looking up just long enough to scowl at the man. “I thought we agreed only to send refined up here.”
“This building has facilities for containment, your rules are arbitrary and restrictive.” Tucker said, motioning to the vertical vats that shown internally.
“It is basic safety and a mutual agreement. I’m going to have to have the city to shut off the water now because of your carelessness.” He turned away, arms thrown in the air, “Again!”
“We have not had a containment breach in years, Edward; you are overreacting.”
“Did you put any in the old Central Circulatory System?”
“It’s been refurb-”
“Yeah, I’m shutting off the water.”
They stood there, the usual standoff of words gone unspoken flashing between them in silent stillness and tense stances.
It was Ed who broke the staring contest first, “Something’s not right about these arrays.” He said suddenly.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re not- They seem too vague, like it’s not just for refinement.”
“You send refined red water to me, I condense it into solid material. You know this.”
“Yeah, but-” He knelt down again, pressing a bit of himself into the array and feeling for its design, “There’s something else there, mixed with the filtration. Are impurities coming into your batches? I can check on the distilleries if-”
Tucker raised a hand, Ed stopped.
“I believe I know what you are referring to, and you don’t have to be worried about it. The arrays all have extra filters to remove or process materials other than what should be what I’m sent. It is redundancy by design intended as a safety precaution.”
“Oh,” Ed blinked, “Yeah, you should keep that in. Sorry.” He considered the vertical vats warily, “I’m still concerned about this design, though. Even if the containers are sturdy, you’re exposing the materials to a lot of light. You’ve literally had lights built into the vats.”
“Light exposure has not had any reliably verifiable effects on the refined materials. Keeping those lights on allows us to visually observe any obvious changes in the stone materials, such as premature crystallization.”
“And it looks cool?” Ed guessed flatly.
Tucker rubbed the back of his neck, which was actually the front of his original neck, given how his body had been unnaturally stretched over the furred form. “Would you begrudge an old shut-in a few creature comforts?”
Yes. “Well, if you say it isn’t interfering at all, just keep an eye on it. And Tucker?”
“Yes Edward?”
Ed sized him up for a moment, wondering whether or not he should bite his tongue.
“I heard Iron Blood passed on recently; the guy who put you where you are is gone now. If I were you, I’d be very concerned about what the future might look like.”
Tucker considered this, trying to differentiate advice from threat.
“Do not go behind my back again.” Ed ordered.
Tucker smiled, like there was some kind of grand joke. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Edward, I merely do what I’m told. Just like you.”
There were a million and one comebacks Ed wanted to respond with, all of which would make this interaction last for longer than his patience could tolerate.
Alphonse would think him a stranger for this.
Wait, no, there was one comeback he could throw over his shoulder as he walked out, “I’ll let Nina know her daddy’s been busy stealing poison from the cleaning plant.”
Weak but fun, and it got the point across. Ed didn’t stick around to see the morphed man’s reaction.