#cartoonromancer

***

The destruction of Central was going just as planned.  The only things missing were a few key players; namely at least half a dozen demons.  Without demons, there was little point in this whole fiasco.  Of course, he knew that they would arrive.  Wherever there was suffering, sorrow and death, there were always demons.

Of course, where there was death, there were also grim reapers.

The way the afterlife is governed could be considered a tad confusing by some, but in actuality, it is very simple.  The highest deity, the one in charge of death, was none other than Lord Death himself, who ran the DWMA.  He mainly ensured that any particularly evil souls were taken care of before they could cause too much harm to the innocent.  He ensured this by sending out meister and weapon teams to dispose of the evil, thus protecting the good.  His other job was managing the lower grim reapers, who collected the souls of people who did not need any special attention.  In other words, they helped humans pass from life into the afterlife.  They were incredibly important, and therefore had incredibly long lifespans.

Now if only there was a way to deal with the ones that were slightly sadistic.

Several reapers had already arrived on the scene.  All wore glasses of some sort, because they all have horrible eyesight.  Three reapers in particular seemed to be making a game out of their soul collecting.  One had long flowing red hair; one had shaggy ginger and black hair; and the last had braided pink and brown hair.  Their names were Grell Sutcliff, Ronald Knox and Ani Tyme respectively.  Their game was simple: Whoever collected the most souls before the work was done, won.  They were enjoying their work a little TOO much.

“Are you sure this one isn’t on the list?” Grell called over to Ani.  “She has such BEAUTIFUL red hair!  It’d be a shame if I didn’t paint the rest of her red as well…”

“Mr. Sutcliff, you know we’re not allowed to anyone who’s not on the list,” Ronald replied, looking up from collecting a young man’s soul.  “You’d get your death scythe taken away again!”

“You don’t think killing ONE extra person would be that bad, do you?” asked Ani.  “I mean, we could always write it off as an accident~”

“How about we finish killing those on the list first, eh?” Ronald said, a slight smirk making its way onto his face.  “Then we can talk about killing extras.”

  Meanwhile, the meister and weapon teams from DWMA were doing their best to help in the chaos.  They worked to evacuate civilians, while simultaneously searching for the kishin eggs that were reported in the area.  Of course, those who couldn’t see souls had no idea where they needed to look.  So they did their best with crowd control.  But things were about to get much more difficult for them.  The demons were beginning to arrive.

They came, clad in black, in all shapes in sizes.  They stopped in front of the grieving, the injured, the malicious.  Contracts were made, and the amount of violence increased. 

A man who had lost his family had snapped, and began killing anyone who dared get near him.  With his new demon companion at his side, he was now practically invincible.  Bodies piled up and blood spilled, turning the streets crimson.  Before much longer, people were killing each other out of fear.  It seemed as if Hell itself had broken loose.  The meisters and weapons were hard pressed to keep order, and in the end, order was lost.

“Oh my,” Grell remarked, watching as dozens of names began appearing on the To-Die list.  “Perhaps that lovely red-haired woman is on the list now.”

***

“Do you sense that?” asked Austin, elbowing Kaitlyn’s arm gently.

“Yeah,” she murmured, quirking her mouth to one side.  “There’s an awful lot of distress in that Amestris place.  Think we should check it out?  It’s been awhile since we’ve made any contracts, after all.”

“I don’t see why not,” he replied.  The brown haired demon stood and stretched for a moment before looking over at his companion.  “Ready when you are!”

“Alright, then let’s go!”

***

The Elric brothers, Roy Mustang, Suspira and Jacci had finally arrived on the outskirts of Central via teleporter.  Despite Ed and Al, angrily, requesting that their female friends stay behind, the two had insisted on coming anyway.  What they saw when they reached their destination horrified them.  The city was practically nothing but rubble at this point; smoke and flames engulfed the entire west side and was spreading fast. 

Without a single word, Edward rushed forward, quickly changing his automail arm into a blade as he went.  Alphonse followed close behind.  Mustang looked back at the two girls, pulling his ignition gloves onto his hand at the same time.  “You girls stay here,” he ordered.  Neither of them objected, knowing that it’d be suicide to try and enter the city now.

Hearing no arguments from the two teens, Mustang gave a nod and took off after the brothers.

***

“Hey, Tsubaki, did you see where Soul and Maka went?” Black Star asked his weapon partner.

“I seem to recall seeing Maka running into the command building,” she replied.  “Why?”

“Because I’m not about to let her get all the tough bad guys to herself!” he crowed, racing towards the decimated building.  “If she thinks that she can outshine me, she’s dead wrong!  Nobody’s a bigger star than me!”

“Of course not, Black Star,” Tsubaki responded with an amused tone.  “Let’s just hurry, alright?  I have a bad feeling about this place.”

“Don’t be scared, Tsubaki!  You have the strongest meister ever!  Nobody can take us down.”

“Really?  The strongest meister ever?  Today must be my lucky day~”

Black Star froze at the new voice and looked around hastily.  “Who said that?” he demanded, squinting in the dark.  “Come out and fight me!”