The Gunslinger Alchemist (Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfiction)

Major Simon Carlyle had about two seconds to arrest his momentum before he crashed into the ground at 71.3 km/h. Such a fall would not necessarily be fatal, but it would be far from pleasant. He would be lucky to walk away from the fall with a few broken bones. To make matters worse, he would have to save the half-conscious female alchemist as well. If she died from the fall, all the effort he had gone through to keep her alive would be in vain. The destroyed pillar could not be used due to the diffusion of the particles. Any connection Carlyle could make would be too brittle to support two people.

Operating mostly on instinct, Major Carlyle drew his revolver as he began to fall and fired two rounds in quick succession. The first bullet struck the stone wall, and the second struck an ancient tree that had been growing in the shade of the fort ever since it saw active use several hundred years before. Once the two bullets left Carlyle's barrel, he prepared himself for the effects of his two acts of haphazard alchemy. His safety was out of his hands at that point. All he could do was pray that his calculations were correct.

Bright light bathed the exterior of the fort as two acts of alchemy occurred simultaneously. A long slab of stone erupted out of the wall and shot downward diagonally. Both Miriam and Major Carlyle struck the transmuted ramp and began sliding downward at a slowed but still unsafe speed.

Meanwhile, a tree far beneath the ramp began to twist and morph greatly as lightning shot in all directions. It shrank and widened, taking its final form a second before the two alchemists made contact. Where a tree had been a moment before, there was now a large pile of cardboard.

The two alchemists crashed into the soft pile of cardboard and were completely unharmed. After a few seconds of pushing against the soft material surrounding him, Carlyle freed himself from the cardboard. Slowly, he made his way over to where Miriam had fallen, holding his revolver at the ready. The Major threw some scattered cardboard out of the way, revealing the female alchemist laying unmoving on the ground.

Carlyle knelt down and pressed two fingers to Miriam's neck. Her pulse was low enough that he was confident she was sufficiently sedated. The Major carefully dragged the female alchemist out of the transmuted pile of cardboard as he carefully considered his next move. Hotchkiss was presently on the wall with Elias Miller. The 1st Lieutenant most likely didn't need backup to deal with a frightened civilian, so Carlyle decided to secure his own tattooed prisoner first. He lifted Miriam's unmoving body onto his shoulders and began walking back toward the main entrance to the fort.

By the time Major Carlyle reached the front entrance, a squad of police officers and several police cars had pulled up near the entrance. One of the police officers, an older man with graying hair and bright blue eyes, saw the approaching man carrying an unconscious woman over his shoulders and decided to intervene.

"What are you doing?" the police officer demanded.

"Police, good," Carlyle said as he lightly placed Miriam down on the ground. "Do any of you have a pen?"

"I do." One of the other police officers answered automatically, earning a glare from the older officer.

"Don't offer a pen to the suspect, Officer Black. You," the older officer pointed at Carlyle. "If you don't want to be arrested for kidnapping, identify yourself and explain why you're carrying an unconscious woman."

He cleared his throat and stood up to his full height before saying, "I'm Major Simon Carlyle, a State Alchemist, and this female alchemist attacked me unprovoked. I sedated her, and I need you to take her into custody. Can you do that?"

A frightened look appeared on the younger officer's face, and he saluted frantically. In comparison, the older officer looked suspicious.

The older officer said, "A State Alchemist in Lisberth? I have some trouble believing that. Do you have any proof?"

"Of course," Carlyle said. He reached into his pocket and produced a shining silver pocket watch emblazoned with the Amestrian dragon circumscribed within a hexagram. On pain of death, no one except for a State Alchemist was allowed to display such a symbol on their person.

With a smile, Carlyle said, "From your perspective, either I'm a State Alchemist, or I killed one. Either way, you should probably give me that pen."

"Yes, sir!" Officer Black shouted as he swiftly stepped forward with a fountain pen held outward.

Major Carlyle took the pen and turned to the unconscious woman. He took one of her arms in his hand and began marking her tattoos with deep ink lines.

"Excuse me, sir. If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?" Officer Black asked.

"I'm interfering with the transmutation circles," Carlyle said. "When she wakes up, she won't be able to perform alchemy until the pen's ink fades." He watched as the other police officers handcuffed Miriam's unconscious body and put her in the back of a squad car

 As the Major began to walk back toward the fort, the older police officer said, "I am Sergeant Renault, sir. We will do everything in our power to process and prosecute this woman. Assaulting a military officer is a serious offense."

"Just make sure I can talk to her when she wakes up," Carlyle said a moment before he began walking back toward Hotchkiss and Elias Miller.

Carlyle hadn't made it too far into the fort before he saw the 1st Lieutenant. The bright blue of Hotchkiss's uniform stood out from his drab surroundings like a lighthouse on a dark night.

"Good job with the arrest, Hotchkiss. Did you retrieve all of Kimblee's notes?"

"Yes, sir." As Hotchkiss spoke, he held a sheaf of ciphered papers out toward Carlyle, who took them greedily.

"Perfect. It looks like we got everything we…"

Major Carlyle's sentence was cut off by the deafening sound of a nearby explosion. The two men quickly turned toward the source of the explosion and saw a large smoke cloud billow out from the direction of the gathered police officers.

They rushed over to the explosion and arrived just in time to see a burning police car and several police officers on the ground, grasping fresh wounds in pain. He realized that the destroyed police car was the one that had been holding the female alchemist a moment before.

Carlyle drew his revolver and swiftly scanned the scene for any signs of Miriam. At the edge of his vision, he saw a flash of red, and muscle memory put his sights on the target. For a bare instant, he had a shot on Miriam's midsection before she reached the treeline.

There was only one bullet left in Carlyle's revolver, and he was painfully aware of what it would do to a human body if it made contact. He almost pulled the trigger. He should have pulled the trigger, but he hesitated. The image of Miriam writhing in agony as the blood in her body was slowly transmuted into steam paralyzed his finger.

The moment of hesitation passed, and Miriam was gone. She had escaped into the forest, and Carlyle knew chasing her would be pointless.

Lieutenant Hotchkiss looked around at the scene with an expression of confusion and asked, "What happened?"

Major Carlyle removed the Evaporation Round from his revolver's cylinder and returned it to his belt before saying three words.

"I underestimated her."