WHO: Alphonse Elric and Open (Open to Multiple Threads) WHAT: Alphonse ends up flexing his medical muscles during the week of chaos; a little danger, a little medicine, a little wtf WHEN: Anytime during the week WARNINGS: Violence, some medical talk, mentions of NPC death, more TBD STATUS: Open and Ongoing
Once a doctor...
This was crazy. Pretty much insanely crazy in ways that made no sense at all to Alphonse. He had been driving along, that first day when he saw soldiers wearing some kind of battle armor of no design he had ever seen just show up and start attacking people. He had been heading home from school when he saw it and had swerved to avoid the first conflict he had seen, thinking it had to be some kind of shoot for a movie or a prank.
Coming around a corner and into another street, and finding dead bodies? That had changed everything. Checking to find anyone alive and finding no one, he had called 911, only to find that the emergency services not only already knew, but that it was happening all over Orange County. And then he had heard the cry for help.
Witho0ut thinking, he took the medical bag he had brought out of his car to check the bodies and ran toward the sound. There was an anger in him, a rage that someone was doing this while he was there, in front of him! He came around the corner only to see half a dozen men in weapons firing on a crowd. Without thinking, he had charged them and nearly got himself killed. He had been knocked down on his first pass, guns pointed at him and that would have been that, had he not been saved.
People, from nowhere it seemed like, came around the corner and attacked the soldiers, taking them out as if it was nothing, and he watched, caught between mesmerized and horrified.
When they were done, they saw him and his bag, and nodded, and left him there with the wounded, and he had snapped out of it. What had he been thinking, trying to attack? He was not a soldier or a hero.
He was a doctor.
And he went to work.
Within hours he had run out of supplies and had started improvising. Sometime that day he found an overturned ambulance, still fresh from the accident that had knocked it over, and raided it for a jacket, a better bag, and supplies.
Hopping out of the ambulance, he looked around, listening to the city at war, picked a direction, and went that way. There was work to be done.
***
Treating the Wounded
As he came around another corner, Alphonse spotted more people, some of whom seemed wounded, resting at the side of the road near a demolished building. He was pretty sure that was the Starbucks he liked, too. Damn. He approached slowly, his shit, jeans, EMS jacket, and hospital bag a little tattered and messy, but all very serviceable yet. "Excuse me, please, if I could see the wounded?"
People looked him askance, but at the sight of his jacket and bag moved aside for him. Alphonse knelt at the side of the wounded people, his smile gentle as he set his bag down. "Hi, my name is Alphonse Elric and I'm here to help." He nodded to them and started to check them out for damage.
"Where are you hurt?"
***
Running from the bad guys
Al ran. He swore that he had done more running the last few days than he had done in the last few years, and he felt exhausted. He had managed to snag some new clothes and rest the previous night with a group of others hiding in a store from the soldiers, but he was still a bedraggled sight, the slowly growing beard on his face showing he had not been near a mirror in days. He hated growing his facial hair. It sucked and always looked ugly.
Such thoughts ran through his head as he turned a corner, spotted some trees and beat feet toward them. He could hear the sound of boots running behind him, sounding like a lot of, soldiers. Just his luck to run into enemy combatants as he was trying to get some innocents to the hospital. He had managed to elude them long enough to dump off his patients and get new supplies, but he hadn't been so lucky on the way out and they had totally trashed his ride.
Now, a little more singed and with some cuts to show for the accident, he hoped he could take cover in the trees and hide long enough for these yahoos to lose interest.
***
Beating up a bad guy/Stealing-er borrowing a van
Limping, Al trudged to the van and sank to squat on his haunches, rested his head against the side of the van. He had no idea how he had ended up here, but he knew this parking lot. This was where the comic shop was that he and Alice had always come to as kids. He peered around the van, spotting the shop, and grinned. Yep. There it was.
He was tired, and yet he knew there were more people out there who had been hurt and needed help. So... he could get moving. He shifted against the van, then glanced up, noticing the windows were all open. That was... odd.
With a shake of his head, he peered in and spotted the keys on the floor of the front area. Well... fine, then, he would use the van and hope to return it to whoever owned it later.
He pulled open the side door to check it out first and was about to peer in when he heard a shout. Glancing around, he spotted a soldier coming around one side of the van. The man was clearly started and was struggling to pull on his helmet even as he was using his other hand to bring his gun up to point toward Al. Reaching blindly into the van for the first thing he found he grasped a bundle of fabric with something heavy inside and using it like a club, he ran toward the man and slammed it into the man's head, sending him reeling back. Two, three, four times, Al struck right at the temple, until the man slumped, unconscious.
Al dropped the bundle, grabbed the man and dragged him toward the side of the van. A few minutes later, he had managed to strip the armor off, toss it and the weapon into the van, and use the man's own rope to tie him up. Leaving him there, Al climbed in, started the van, and pulled away, slowly, trying to be wary of soldiers and look for those who needed help, both at the same time. He was grinning as he did so, though. The bundle he had used to bludgeon the man to unconsciousness? It had contained comics, including a large collectors' hardback volume, carefully cushioned in wrap and cover, of a graphic novel collection, and a receipt with a familiar name. And the bundle had also contained a bra and a pair of panties, as well as a man's jacket.
He had no idea whose jacket it was, but wait until he told Alice that he had found her underwear! He honestly was proud of his friend for... whatever it was she had done to leave them there.
Laughing, he drove on.
***
((OOC: Pick your poison! He can be found anywhere in Orange County, during any of the days, treating patients, transporting them in a borrowed van, even taking a brief break at one of the few seemingly safe places to nap or eat, even taking fire and in need of rescue from the bad guys by some hero. Choose one of my starters, or start a new thing, and I will hop in.))