Women, wine, and music... perfect, no?

[Guest]

Sashura walked through the streets of Creta, heading into a bar. He was sent to Creta to find information on one of its more important border bases, a perfect spot for Drachma to move and expand its power to weaken Amestris. He, however, had already completed this mission, having delivered all of any secrets back to the Drachman General, and the other intelligence bases. He sat down at the bar, and asked for a glass of vodka, only to fit the stereotype that all Drachman's loved the alchol so much. It was brought the shot glass filled with the clear liquid, and a bottle was placed beside the glass. He took the glass and threw the alchol back as if it was nothing. He then looked back when he heard a woman strugling with a customer. He stood up, feeling it was his place, as a sworn protector of Drachma and its civillians, this including future civillians of the country, and walked over to the table.

"Lt. Colonel Kir of the Drachman military. I'll tell you this once, let the girl go."

Of course the man snickered and stood up, but he faced the wrong direction. Sashura made a confused look, and cleared his throat, making the man turn around and face him. This man was... blind and harassing a lady? What the hell... The blind man began to give a speech about how his loss of sight increased his other senses, however, he obviously still needed sight when he walked into the wall. Sashura sighed and simply sat back down, untill the blind man attempted to hit him. He quickly grabbed the man and pressed two of his fingers in his neck, forcing him to drop to the ground, his entire body paralyzed. Sashura sighed, hating the fact that these Cretans would soon be called Drachmans, but felt it was his duty to consider them family. Even if he disliked this family. The woman thanked him and asked him why he would save her.

"It is my job to protect your honor."

"But i'm a prostitute..."

Sashura's eyes widened slightly and he took another swig of the vodka.

"I wish you had of told me that before i beat the blind guy up..."

[Xan]

Xanthus Icarus was walking around in Creta, quite calmly despite the fact that he was born in Amestris. Of course, Xan wasn’t playing the part of a typical Amestrian militant today. No, he was playing the part of Famine, a member of the Fuhrer’s special task force today.


After the incident in South City, Xan had travelled to Central, where he owned a little house. On his doorstep had been am envelope with the seal of the Fuhrer on it instead of a postcard. Curious, though knowing exactly what the note inside would say, Xan opened the envelope, and as he expected, he found an invitation to join the Four Horsemen. Assuming his acceptance of the new position, the Fuhrer had assigned the new Famine a mission. Gather intelligence about Creta’s military, including weaponry, frontier bases, and vehicles, and report back to the Fuhrer.


As was becoming a good habit for him, the Ishvalan was wearing his matrix style outfit: A long black trench coat covered a black collared button-up shirt, which was tucked into black slacks. Black socks were inside of boots that were polished so thoroughly that they almost literally shined, even though they were jet black. The only thing that Xan was wearing that wasn’t black was his tie, which was white. Even his glasses were jet black, hiding his red eyes that were currently gleaming with their usual cool amusement.



Xan had completed his mission and was on his way back to Amestris. However, he thought that it might be a good idea to stop at a local bar before he headed back. ‘I may as well sample Cretan liquor while I’m here.’ Famine thought to himself with an amused smile. Why not? After all, as Famine Xan had a paycheck with so many zeroes even he almost considered it to be madness. Almost.


As the Ishvallan entered the bar, he saw a man being brought to the ground by what appeared to be a paralyzing technique. Looking at the man who was on the ground, then at the man who had put him there, Xan shrugged. Let the stupid Cretans fight, it wasn’t Xan’s problem. Then the alchemist noticed that the man on the ground was blind. That changed things. Xan had once had a friend who was blind, and seeing this blind man on the ground reminded him of that friend.

Walking over to where the incident had taken place, Xan looked at the blind man’s assailant. He looked at the man through his shades before speaking in perfect Cretan.

I suppose that you had a reason to use a paralyze technique on a blind person?

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar just stepped off the train, his mission was quite simple. Recon and Assassinate, it was the original job he had taken from Reila and the one he enjoyed more than being the Chief of Intelligence. He growled lightly as he dropped a small dagger covered in blood into a nearby trashcan. His target was travelling incognito, and had no bodyguards. Which made it exceptionally easy for him to kill him, the target you ask?

A Drachman Officer, some brigadier general or some such who was going to negotiate some supplies to the front line. He was of course dressed as normal, his black suit with a white under shirt. The inside of the jacket had two .45 calibur hardballer pistols, and several bags of phosphurous dirt was spread across him discreetly. He even had two silencers attached to the pistols, not that silencers actually did anything. So long as loud noises were around they could be used halfway effectively, after all what people saw in the movies was the complete opposite of what real silencers did.

He decided that since he had a few hours to take a different train and leave he'd hit a bar since his belly was craving alcohol. Within minutes he had entered a random pub, the scene inside was a odd mess. He saw a blind man on the ground, apparently incapable of moving. The man nearby had a girl, obviously a prositute. He looked Drachman, his facial features anyway. The other man... Was that Icarus?!? What luck to find his old friend turned enemy without him even saying goodbye to him. It was currently unknown how Icarus would react to him, but it was more than likely that it would be hostile.

He decided to silently go around them and go to the bar, quickly paying for a bottle of whiskey before seeing bar quickly empty except for the bartender and the unconcious man. The prosititute was obviously wishing to leave, and the Drachman coupled with Xan looked ready to fight. He decided to hold onto the bottle as he pulled out a small amount of phosphurous dirt to hold in his fire hand. He should be able to use the liquor from the bottle to create a diversion if necessray and exit the bar into the alleyway for a better vantage point. He kept his eyes over at the two men and held it, in Xan's prior experience he would think that his hand that was clenched into a fist was empty since his last experience was the hand holding the liquor was the wind hand and the dangerous one at that.

[Guest]

Sashura casually reclined in his seat, and leaned against the bar before he sighed and poured himself another glass of vodka. When the strange figure approached him, Sahura recognised him right away. Former Amestrisian militant, pretty high ranking too. Unfortuately, he meant nothing to Sashura at this moment, and such, he turned away. He simply took a small sip of his vodka before hearing the blind man awaken slowly. He sighed knowing this would lead to alot more trouble than it's worth, especially something like this. Drachma vs Amestris, not something he wanted to handle outside of the battlefield, but if it could not be avoided...

"If you look to your left, there's a prostitute. If you look to your right, there's a paralyzed blind guy with an obviously erect private area, and has the stench of alchol all over him. You tell me what has just happened, and why."

Sashura poured another glass, the alchol holding no affect on his mind... unfortunately. He sighed and took another swig, not holding anything back, and not paying much attention. He wasn't highly known in this area, luckily, and with the false appearance of his all black changbao over his military uniform, maybe conflict could be avoided. Sashura was not looking for a fight, but he wasn't looking to argue either. He started pouring another glass, his mind nowhere near focusing on the situation behind him. He just wanted to let go of his troubles, and have a nice drink to rest himself. He suddenly stood up from his chair, for the blind man started kicking furiously tryig to do martial arts and stand up at the sametime.

"You have angered the Blind Kung Fu Master!! Fear my deadly Dragon Attack!!"

Sashura slowly fell back into a normal stance before the blind man came rushing at him and diving. Unfortunately, for the blid man, Sashura had stepped to the right, dodging the attempted attack. The blind man, instead, jumped onto two stools and went flying at a random cutomer who seemed to be attempting to leave. This man was Murazar Dauthi, however, Sashura did not know that right away.

[Xan]

Xan did look around the bar, and he saw that there was indeed a prostitute and that the man on the ground was drunk and was…a little bit too happy. The Ishvallan didn’t need to look into the situation any further, as it was now very obvious what had transpired. Looking at the man (who was Sashura, but Xan didn’t know that yet) Xan was about to introduce himself, but before he could, the blind man yelled something about kung fu and launched himself toward the man who had just defeated him so easily before. Sashura just stepped to the left, and the blind man kept flying, headed directly towards…Dauthi?!

The Ishvallan had read the profiles of every alchemist in Amestris, as was his privilege now that he was Famine. Apparently quite a few people had gotten more powerful, and this included Murazar. However, since Xan had the advantage of knowing about Murazar’s abilities, he was prepared for anything that Dauthi might care to throw at him, provided that he was hostile towards Xan.

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar nearly groaned as the blind idiot flung himself at him in a horrid fighting style sort of way. He growled lightly before the distance was closed, he tossed the bottle up in the air. His face took on a frigid, steely expression of pure control and calm. Almost a madness few people understood as he sidestepped the blind man and tripped him. Before he fell he twisted his arm behind his back and as he slammed into the ground he dropped to where his knee was on his throat. He could either let him go, crush his throat which would kill him, or simply choke him into unconsciousness. He chose the last.

After a few seconds the man passed out. He stood back up, just in time to catch the whiskey bottle by its handle right side up. As he looked up his eyes matched Icarus's, he unplugged the bottle and took a swig out of it to calm his hand tremors and he poured the rest on the blind mans back. Just in case the fool awoke later and he had to light him on fire. He threw the bottle behind him so it shattered on the wall, then he spoke in Cretarian. Something hardly anyone knew officially that he spoke multiple languages fluently." A Traitor, a Drachman Officer, and a Mercenary Assassin. I suppose this isn't the start of a good bar joke." His sarcasm oozed out of his voice, his politeness was gone. His voice remained calm, in control, however it seemed hostile even if he hadn't began a battle yet.

His hands clenched together, this way he could begin the battle with the wind if necessary. Xanthus would of course know he was already battle ready, the other man would think however he was going to brawl. Which would effectively be scary enough since he took the blind man down as if it was handling an unruly child.

[Guest]

Sashura looked over at the blind man, and watched as he was finally put down by a random stranger who revealed himself to be an assassin. Unfortunately for this strange man, Sashura could fluently speak Cretarian, but he did not reply or make any hostile movements, despite his opponents clenched fist. He sighed and sat back down at the bar, his interest in neither of the men, for he simply wanted to drink and make leave back for Drachma. He sighed slightly before he carefully sipped his vodka, however, before he did so, he removed his gloves and prepared himself for any kind of movement. Luckily, he rarely used his alchemy, so not many knew of his alchemic ability, and information was hard to find on this figure who made sure that his targets were... ineffective when it came to information gathering.

"I'm not looking to fight either of you, so calm down..."

He took another swig of his vodka, when the blind man slowly dragged himself back to his feet, breathing very heavily. He slowly walked over towards the Drachman officer, and the blind man reached into his own pocket, pulling out a jade necklace. He smirked, his long, white beard seeming to move a little as his mouth did, and spoke, his voice very high and annoying.

"What now?"

The blind man jumped backwards a little and started moving his hands around and making fake wind noises, along with false thunder and explosio noises. Sashura sighed slightly knowing what was coming and the man ran up behind Sashura.

"I am invisible thanks to the necklace of invisibility! Is it a wind from the east blowing, or from the west or is it from the east again?"

Sashura sighed slightly, and ignored the man the best he could. The blind kung fu master continued to blow on Sashura's face with each comment on the wind he made, but once he asked if it was from the east again, the 'wind' suddenly met a 'rock', otherwise known as Sashura fist. He punched the man with the back of his hand, which was clenched tightly, knocking the man back. He looked at Xan, and made an almost crying face.

"Why didn't you tell me i was still visible!? I did the east. west, south thing and looked like an idiot!"

He suddenly charged at Xan, trying to perform another Dragon Attack, however, Xan was to his left, a wall was to his-Bang! The blind man went through the wall, and this time was unconsious for sure. Sashura sighed and started drinking his vodka from his glass once more, ignoring the craziness.

[Xan]

The tension in the air was palpable. Xanthus recalled that no one in Amestris knew that he was Famine, so to them, he was still the rouge alchemist known as Leviathan. The irony was that the Ishvallan was fighting an Amestrian in Creta, when by all accounts, they should both be attacking the Drachman. However, the Drachman did not seem to want a fight, so Xan decided to leave him be for the moment.

Xan saw the blind man crash through a wall and his lips twitched. Well, at least that idiot was gone. Now it was time for the real fun to begin. If Dauthi wanted a fight, then Xan would be happy to oblige him.

Murazar Dauthi. It’s been a long time. Do you really want to fight me assassin? We both know how it will end. You’ll go running back to Briggs with your tail between your legs like a beaten dog, and I’ll walk out of this place without a scratch on me.

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar kept his expression cold and frozen, so Xanthus was going to initiate the battle or at least egg him into doing so. Murazar didn't want to begin it because whoever saw the others abilities and limits first could form a plan to win. It was obvious that the first blow would be important, but it wasn't as important if the other simply evaded and learned.

He replied instead, his face keeping the expression that seemed to fit his alias. The Wind of Death." Well Icarus, thats quite a bit of overconfidence you have there. Do you feed it regularly with betrayal and burned trust and respect? I suppose we could have a three-way battle with that Drachman involved, I can't after all leave an enemy alone. "

He changed his language to Drachman and spoke to the Officer," What do you say? Care to join the battle that is about to happen? If not you might as well, because i'm not letting you go if I can help it." He kicked over a stool and walked away from the bar to give himself more room to manuever. His eyes remained on everyone in the room.

[Guest]

Sashura took one last sip of his vodka, seeing that battle was inevitable, and sighed slightly. He stood up slowly, and walked over towards where the blind man laid outside the bar. Sashura sighed and grabbed the leg of the blind man before picking him up, and throwing him at Dathui as a weapon. Sashura decided to rather analyze then instigate and throw the first attack. Sashura's blade seemed to glisten as the sunlight from the window bathed him, but instead of drawing his sword, Sashura grabbed a bottle and smashed against the table. He held the bottle as if it was his weapon, and closed his eyes, but reopening them just as quickly, revealing the red glow from his left eye.

"Until we're allowed to be free... I said we got no guarantee, embracing the mutilated corpses, open your eyes before you drown in blood."

What Sashura said seemed to make sense, but to him it made plenty. He sighed as he awaited the movement of one of the two. Neither of them knew of his alchemic ability, and he didn't intend to put it out in the open in such a manor. He payed close attention as he knew that they both were Amestrians, meaning he would possibly be the main target.

[Xan]

Xanthus was amused. To be lectured on loyalty by an assassin was hilarious! However, the Ishvallan was done with words for the moment. If Dauthi would not initiate the battle, then Xan would do so himself!

Before Xan could do so however, the blind man's (hopefully) unconscious body sailed through the air at the assassin. With a small chuckle, Xan touched the ground lightly with his left hand. A block of stone was pulled up from the floor. Placing the stone block in his right hand, the Ishvallan pointed the stone at Dauthi. Suddenly, stone started to deconstruct, forming dozens of inch long spikes that were aimed at Dauthi. This was a new technique that Xan had been working on that he called a Controlled Deconstruction.

The Ishvallan was curious to see how exactly Dauthi handled a body and dozens of spikes being projected in his direction.

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar frowned as suddenly a body was sailling towards him, and Icarus had thrown apparently a giant rod that was falling apart and sending shards at him. He grinned for a moment before taking the palmful of phosphorous dirt and throwing it at the ground. He pulled out one of his .45 pistols into his opposite hand of the wind hand as he blast crescent high density wind cutting through the floor and he used his pistol in conjuction to shoot partially the sides of what looked like a hole appearing in the floor.

He quickly fell through into the liqour basement and landed on several barrels of what appeared to be rum. He decided to pull out his opposite pistol and began to fire simultaniously upwards into the next floor above him. He shot from where he remembered approximately where Icarus and the Drachman was. As his pistols emptied, he reloaded them and put them away before grabbing a handful of phosphurous dirt in each hand and sprinting up the stairs to the upper story.

It turned out the flight of stairs went to the second floor of the building which made it easy to deliver alcohol to the patrons who stayed overnight. It had a pulley system rigged up for delivery of the alcohol down to the first floor. He decided to take the advantage of it to prepare either to have the higher ground inside the inn/pub while also being able to move up to the roof if necessary.

[Guest]

Upon seeing the matrix looking man helping him, Sashura was slightly surprised. However, he was no fool to let his guard down, so he quickly looked around for some form of escape. Once he saw the window, he sighed lightly, knowing that if he were to get in danger, that he could head for the roof and continue battle there, with alot more free space. Sashura watched as the man seemed to fall through the ground, and quickly backed when he heard the sound of gunshots. The man had shot at him from beneath the ground, and he had just barely dodged the attack. He then noticed that the blind man was... screaming? For christ sakes, didn't this guy ever stay unconsious? Sashura quickly grabbed a broken glass and broke off a shard, sending it right at the blind man's foot. The man screamed and started jumping around on oe foot before he slipped and fell through the hole, making a loud 'thump!' sound.

"That idiot..."

He suddenly remembered the other man and slowly backed away near the window, just incase he decided to attack him next. He tossed the glass to the ground and grabbed a hold of his saber, and awaited the next move of either of his opponents. He had yet made any attacks, so why was he found as a hostile force? Either way, he would have to protect himself. No matter the cost.

[Xan]

Xanthus had reacted quickly to Dauthi's movements, accurately predicting that the assassin would shoot upwards from beneath the ground. Putting his right hand on the floor, he destroyed the section that was underneath him, so that when the bullets started to fly, they passed harmlessly over his head and a foot or two to the left or right. He had landed just in time to see Dauthi run up the stairs. Hmm...now where could he be going? It didn't matter, because from down here, Xan could control the course of the battle...

Using his construction alchemy, Xanthus caused a section on the floor (not where he was standing) to go straight through the bar, going even through the roof. Exactly why Xan wanted a stone pillar going through the bar? Simple, because he needed a way to get to the roof that did not involve taking the stairs. After all, an old military tactic was to always have the high ground right?

Xan placed his hands against the pillar and closed his eyes to concentrate. Using deconstruction, he hollowed out the pillar, then using reconstruction, he filled the pillar with a staircase that led to and opening on the roof. And to complete his creation, Xan blasted a door into it so that he could climb the staircase.

Knowing that he would need a weapon, Xan transmuted some nearby metal into two swords, one for each hand. Perfect. Holding the swords in a double reverse grip style, Xan ran to the staircase and began the ascension to the roof.

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar put all his weight into the door, crashing into the ground as it burst and splinter open. He got back up and threw more ignition powder in the air before pulling his pistols out. It turned out he was first to be up top, he looked around noticing most of the rooftops in the city were close together enough to jump into them. He kept note of that as he readied himself for battle. He turned back around and backed up to the edge of the building. It was taller that the other, as a plus the bar had no glass cemented in the top of it. Every other building as far as the eye could see had that. Except for warehouses and bars.

He knelt down to get a better rating on his accuracy as he looked down the only doorway. His guess was about twenty meters. So if he had to he could blast an explosion nearby to make the bar unstable and collapse as he jumped to the next building. He might not end up on the rooftop, but hey at least he'd be in a building. He heard just a slight scraping sound from down it and began to fire rapidly into the doorway before holstering his weapons and snapping his fingers to cause an explosion in the middle of the rooftop, right in front of him and the door. He used that opportunity to jump off the rooftop into the fire escape and threw himself through the glass of a window and pulled his pistols back out to prepare to shoot at xan if he decided to follow. If not he was prepared to shoot at the entrance of the pub if the drachman exited.

[Guest]

Sashura watched closely as Xanthus made a pillar go through the ceiling, and watched as rubble came crashing down from a loud explosion. Luckily for him, he was next to a window, and he quickly jumped out, grabbing onto the pipes on the outside of the building. Gathering his footing o the window opening, he felt the building shake a little, and quickly holstered himself onto the roof. Then, moving just as uickly as he came up, he leapt onto a neraby building, drawing his sword and preparing for either of his opponents to make the next move. This was unusual, three enemies all in one spot. Could their higher ups had anticipated this meeting and sent each of them to this location to test the resolution of each subordinate? No matter, Sashura had a dut y to carry out, and he was going to do that.

He simply snapped his fingers, and created a small, brittle shield using the carbon components in the air to make a weak form of steel. He through this through a window, and jumped into an apartment room. He looked around, and quickly took flight into the hallway, which was a spiral staircase. Maybe neither of his opponents would end up here. To him, he was a priority target, and he'd have no choice but to let those two kill each other first before he made any move to attack either of them.

[Xan]

Xanthus felt an the entirety of the staircase shake as though a small earthquake had occurred while he was ascending the flights of stairs. What had he read in Dauthi’s file? Something about being able to produce explosions with his bare hands? Damn, that could become rather problematic. Deciding not to go directly to the roof, Xan created a door way to his left. It opened out into a room that seemed to be where the bar’s owner stayed. Not wanting to waste time admiring the modestly decorated room, Xan went to a nearby window and looked out.

He did not see much. That is, he did not see much more than two smashed windows, most likely one each for the Assassin and the Drachman. In fact, he knew that at least one of the windows had been used by Dauthi because he was still in the window, looking at the pub. Hmm…

With an evil smile, Xan backed away from the window and crouched down low to the ground. Dauthi and the Drachman would never know where exactly he was, so the advantage was temporarily with him.

Feeling safe and hidden, Xan closed his eyes and began to think about his next move…

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar climbed out of the window, he looked around. Xanthus hadn't left the bar yet, and... Oh so thats the building the drachman was in. He decided to climb down the fire escape and as soon as his feet touched the ground holstered his weapons before going over to the bar and throwing ignition powder up in the air he began to blast and explode with every palm pointed at somewhere and snap of the fingers. The front bar was being demolished as fast as humanely possible.

He expected Xanthus to either attack, or to not attack. Despite either he stopped before sprinting over to the apartment complex building and hitting the button for the elevator to come down. He was going up, and he was going to disable the only other elevator before going up to the fifth floor out of eight, which was where the drachman was. He made sure after all to count that many windows high and across to figure out which room even though he doubted he'd remain in there.

Just as soon as he entered the elevator and climbed to the top and used a small wind blast to destroy the other cables before proceeding up he heard police vehicles. A lot of them, enough to show that an entire precint was sent including a swat team being deployed. As soon as the doors to the elevator opened he saw the Drachman, he pulled out a pistol and took a few potshots at him as he took cover against the left wall. He was happy they were silenced, the cops wouldn't hear the muted shots over their own movement and sirens.

[Guest]

Sashura watched the action unfold before him and simply smirked. It was rare that he smirked, even during battle, which meant it was time he involved himself. Upon seeing the explosions, Sashura quickly began making calm, stabilized calculations, and was even able to tell his opponents first move. He quickly ran into the exercising hall, or the gym as you would call it, and grabbed a punching dummy. From there, he dressed the dummy with his coat, revealing his long sleeved shirt. He quickly grabbed his saber and ran into a room across the hall, and made his escape by jumping out an open window. A couple was there, however, to keep them from making noise, Sashura didn't hesitate to create two carbon blades and send them through the throats of the two civillians. Very rarely would he harm a civillian, but in this situation, he didn't have much of a choice.

He moved quickly, leaping into another room in the building across from him. From there he ran into the hallways and went down another set of spiral staircases. He soon reached a window and saw the police rushing towards the bar, and in the building across from him, he saw Murazar shooting at the dummy. He slowly opened his window, and created a small shuriken made of carbon steel. He launched it with precision aim, using his left eye of course, and it went flying through the window where Murazar was. Sashura, did not stay long enough to see this, for he closed the window and had already attempted to head for the alleyway behind the bar. He opened the back door slowly, and noticed that the cops were swarming the area where Murazar and the dummy were believed to be.

"Activating combat mode. Modulating phase. Hmph, let the Second Gig begin."

Suddenly, Sashura's left eye began to glow red slightly, and his left eye color changed from blue-grey to crimson and he began scanning the area, his sigh being enhanced greatly. He found a position in which he could hide, and ran into a restaurant like building, quickly hiding beside a freezer.

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