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Short. Lightly muscled. Lithe frame. The Asset stood to attention, assessing the shorter blond man currently standing before him. The room was silent save for the echo of the door the smaller man had slammed on his way in.
High level of special awareness: Possible combat ability.
Slight lean in gate: possible prosthetic limbs. Possible hidden weapons.
Strengths: agility and speed.
Weaknesses: force and durability.
“He’s a lot taller than I thought he would be,” the voice interrupted his examination. He could not place the accent.
“Don’t start zis again,” came an exasperated second voice. A second man stepped into the room hair neatly groomed and holding a clipboard.
Low balance, low awareness: Negligible combat ability.
Authoritative: Possible Hydra command.
“I’m just saying that the last guy was really tall as well. Are you trying to tell me something,” the accusation carried a slight hint of aggression causing the Asset to tense.
The clipboard man eyed the shorter one irritably, “I vill not hear any more of zis nonsense.”
The shorter man huffed.
“Fucking nonsense my ass. Think I’m…microscopic…tiny…ant,” he muttered under his breath, marching up to the asset. Without orders from his superior the Asset remained still, standing in place. Perhaps he would have to kill the shorter one for his insolence.
“Elric,” the man with the clipboard said in warning.
“Oi, hello, anyone in there,” Elric shoved his face into his personal space and waved a hand in front of his eyes.
Elric made a sound of disgust.
“Another of these creepy drones,” he stepped away, aiming his glare towards the clipboard man, ”I told you, I an’t working with any these brainwashed idiots,”
“That…” a second Hydra agent entered silently through the second set of doors, “Is not your concern.”
There was a hard ice to his tone.
Authoritative: High Rank, Hydra Command. He straightened subconsciously.
“Not my conc…NOT MY CONCERN!!! The last guy nearly took my head off,” Elric waved his arms around in a wasteful display of energy.
The clipboard man frowned eye twitching, a sign of irritation, “Do your job. Follow orders and maybe you vill find yourself in less situations vere zat is a problem.”
Perhaps he was not very high in Hydra command. Hydra did not show emotion and this man was presenting signs of extreme dissatisfaction and annoyance.
“That job was a fucking set up. You should be grateful I was there to improvise instead of one of your brainless attack dogs,” Elric continued arguing, oblivious to the disruption he was causing.
“Enough,” ordered the Superior Hydra Operative, firm, unquestionable, “Elric. You will work with whom we say you work with. The standard punishment applies,”
Eric stepped back, turning towards the second man and glaring hatefully. Dark eyes that promised pain and retribution. He knew them well, many of his enemies had those eyes. Elric tensed and the Asset prepared in case of a confrontation.
However, after seconds of hateful glaring, Eric swore and backed down, posture losing its tautness. The Asset relaxed.
The Hydra Operative gave Elric a distasteful look as Elric forcefully snapped his mouth shut.
“Proceed,” he ordered the clipboard man. The scowling clip board man moved forward.
“You both have the brief on the…”
“Break in, kill a guy, get out, don’t get caught,” Elric interrupted impatiently, “Not exactly a chemical equation is it.”
Clipboard man frowned again, “Most importantly. No one must know vee are behind it.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it the first billion times,”
“I would like to believe zis but you constantly bring attention to yourself,”
“Hey, alchemy is flashy, literally flashy, what do you expect!”
Elric seamed instant on causing a disturbance. He was probably valuable or he would have been killed long before. The Asset hoped it would not interfere with their brief partnership. He had little tolerance for those who did not pull their weight.
He tuned out the rest of the conversation when it failed to yield any more useful information. From what he understood of the information he had already been provided, Elric would be providing him with an entrance and additional support if required. From there he would proceed with the infiltration and the elimination of his target.
. . . . . . .
Ed eyed the transmuted hole the ‘Soldier’ has disappeared down, wondering if he should close it up and hide somewhere. The ally was deserted, it was 2am and they were three kilometers from the secure facility they were breaking into so he should be fine.
He sat himself down, propping his head up. He did not know what sort of sick process Hydra inflicted on these people but they where lifeless and drone like, following orders like robots. Emotionless. Uncaring. They always gave him the creeps. And they never seamed to live long because whatever process Hydra used it obviously did some irrevocable damage that caught up sooner or later.
The Solider-what sort of name was that anyway-had seemed slightly more aware than some of the other brainwashed agents he had worked with. Most of them would not know when to eat unless they had orders from a handler. It irritated him and made him mad.
He was lucky he was too valuable to risk submitting to the process, which seemed to produce more failures then successes. The soldier seamed slightly more there. Sure, he had that empty stare but it seamed more analyzing than robotic.
Though his attempts at conversation had all ended in failure. Maybe he had taken offence to being called a ‘brainwashed idiot.’
He supposed the reason he even cared so much was because of the arm.
His heart had leapt when he had seen the Soldier’s metal arm. He recognized the design. It was much like his own if more on the heavy-duty side. It was the first sign he had had in a long while that Winry was still alive and kicking. Maybe…possibly… the Soldier had seen Winry…It was a long short.
The only time he ever saw her was when they were administering punishments. Obviously, he avoided those. Whenever they needed to fix his automail they either removed it completely or knocked him out so there was zero contact between the two of them. They had started doing that after one of his earlier failed escape attempts.
He missed her. He missed her so much…why had she followed him through the gate. Why…God he wanted to murder every last Hydra agent.
He gave himself a mental slap before he could sink down into a familiar spiral of failure and self-deprecation. There would be plenty of time to wallow in his failures later when he was alone in the personal quarters. When he was out, whether in the field or lab, he worked.
He glanced over the blue prints again. The Soldier should have given the signal by now. The tunnel should have only taken minuets to transvers. Add another five minuets for any extra security and he should have given the all clear. Why hadn’t he? This is why he hated these subterfuge missions.
Alchemy was flashy, quite literally, and not best suited for undercover or infiltration. Point him at a building and he could demolished it in seconds… these sneaky missions were a waste of his skills.
“Vot is your status,” buzzed in his ear. Elric grumbled touching the com.
“No change,”
There was a pause before an irritated, “he is behind schedule. Vot did you do?”
“It’s not my fault your info. was shoddy,” he snapped. Bastards always blamed him for everything.
After a moment of consideration he leapt down into the hole, landing in a crouch. Quickly and silently in moved down its length, stooping low to avoid hitting his head. It must have been pretty tight for the ‘Soldier.’ Perhaps he should have made the tunnel bigger. Whatever. He probably did not even notice.
“Elric, enter zee building, assess zee situation, if unviable return to zee checkpoint,”
Ed rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah,” he replied before switching off his com.
“What do you think I’m doing,” he muttered under his breath.
The tunnel brought him exactly when it was supposed to, the cooler room just inside the perimeter of the facility. It had been the least fortified area in the facility and ideal for a subterranean infiltration. Calculating the tunnel length and position had been child’s play compared to some of the equations he dealt with in his lab. Transmuting it has been even easier.
Ed carefully examined the space before him, alert to any danger. His eyes quickly found the ‘Soldier’ who was crouched by a heavy metal door and giving him a calculating look.
“What’s the hold up,” he snapped in a whisper.
The Soldier gestured at a blinking box next to the door, “Signal detector.”
Which meant sending a confirmation signal back to base was a bad idea.
Ed frowned, noting the signs of additional security that had not been included in his briefing. The Soldier appeared to be working his way through a mess of wires. Probably trying to shut the system down.
Ed grumbled. He was good with technology…but he wasn’t that good. However, there where always more than one way around a problem. He approached the door.
“Move over,” he ordered and was graced with a blank stare.
“You saw me make the tunnel…maybe I can do something here,”
More expressionless staring, maybe even a hint of surprise and irritation. But the solider shifted, allowing him to assess the door. Ed rolled his eyes, ignoring the box of exposed wires and running his hands along the titanium frame, getting a sense for its composition. It was riddled with wires and sensors. He frowned, moving up and down, attempting to find a point of weakness. When that failed he knelt on the ground. As he suspected there was a pressure pad just on the other side of the door.
Then he checked the walls and…bing-go there was barely any monitoring equipment outside the doors frame.
Cautiously, he clapped his hand together and placed them of the wall next to the door. He winced as the transmutation gave off several flashes and sparks of electric discharge. God he hoped it would not set off the alarms. Carefully, he pulled apart the base components of the wall, rearranging them in such a way that it left an empty space where there was none before.
Once he was done there was an opening to the hallway beyond. He released a sigh of relief, thankful he had not accidentally set off any sensors. As he had said before…he was not suited to this sneaky shit.
The Soldier slid swiftly past in a move surprisingly fluid for such a large guy. He supposed they were on a time crunch and they had just wasted a good few minuets.
When the Soldier returned there were several light splashes of blood dotting his armour. Ed followed him silently back down the tunnel, closing it up behind them. One day he…and Winry…would escape this life. He would make sure of it.