Returnee 1129

Chapter 7: Irony

Dennis Ryland looked at what was right in front of him. The man was “wearing” skin. Rubber was glued all over his body. He was lying on the ground, half-dead. If you were to ask him his name, he would simply reply, “Elusive”.

“Now tell me,” Dennis said. “Are you going to talk? Where are those three hiding?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the warn out Elusive said. Not satisfied with the answer, Dennis kicked him as hard as he could in the stomach. Elusive began to cough up blood.

“Now tell me,” Dennis said with anger. “I know you stole some design specs we had for new mechanical limbs, and I know you sold it to three people. Who and where are they?”

“F--k you.” Unsatisfied yet again, Dennis pulled out his gun and shot Elusive in his right arm. He yelled with pain and agony.

“I’m going to ask you one more time, where are they?”

“Even if you (cough) try to kill me. I’ll never (cough) tell you.” Elusive kept coughing until he finally spat out his own blood.

“From this point on, you’ll wish Returnee 1129 had killed you.”

“Returnee 1129…. You mean Edward Elric? Is he a 4400?”

“You mean you didn’t know?” I’m going to have to give my staff a raise for keeping the fact that a 4400 is working for NTAC a secret, Dennis thought.

“Does he have a power yet?”

“You know what? I really don’t know,” Dennis said sternly.

“Mr. Ryland, I need to tell you something.”

“What would that be?” Elusive then got up and head butted Dennis in the face, knocking him on the floor.

“You’re an asshole.” Elusive said. He then left, planning to get free of the grasp of NTAC. He ran as fast as he could, trying to block out the pain of his bleeding right arm out of his mind.


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To the average person, Carl Morrissey was just a guy who loved his wife and enjoyed helping others. After he was taken, that had changed. One day Carl was walking home. He had just finished his shift at the local supermarket. Carl looked at his watch.

“Ten o clock,” he said. “I’ve got to get an earlier shift.”

Carl looked at his surroundings. It seemed like it was the same old park he always walked through. Now however, it was torn up, littered, and graffiti dominated the place.

And to think, Carl thought, I proposed to Grace here.

As he walked he saw something that angered him. Two thugs were feeling up against a woman who was struggling to escape...

“Come on lady,” one thug said, “Don’t fight it. We’ll be gentle, but if you don’t stop… It’ll be the roughest night of your life!”

“Yeah,” the second thug said. “We just want you to… show us how long it will take you to…”

“LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU DEMENTED SICKOS!” The woman screamed while interrupting him.

Carl Morrissey gathered up what little courage he had and walked up to them.

“Ge-Get y-your h-hands off of h-her,” he said, while stuttering.

Both men stopped what they were doing, looked at him, and laughed.

“Who’s gonna make us?” the first man asked. “You? Come on, you’re pathetic! I bet you couldn’t even touch me!”

“Let’s not waste any time and kill this wimp now!” the second man said.

“Good idea…”

Both men jumped at Carl…


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As one might expect, Ed had his head in a book. He was reading about the history of one of the bloodiest wars ever… World War II. Ed was surprised at how much of this he remembered from passing through The Gate.

Let’s see, Edward thought. It says here Einstein helped push the President to have the A-bomb made… Wait a minute. The Einstein? Maybe he wasn’t as great as everyone made him out to be.

Right as Ed finished his thought, Tom walked in.

“Ed,” Tom said. “We have a case to do. Some sort of vigilante. Possibly a 4400. Let’s get ready to go.”

“I’ll be ready in a minute, Colonel Mustang. Is Hawkeye going to come too?”

“Colonel? Mustang? What are you talking about? I’m Tom Baldwin! Who’s Hawkeye? Do you mean Diana? Are you all right? Did that invisible guy hit you on your head too hard?”

Ed was stunned at himself. “I-I’m sorry. I guess I had some kind of weird flashback or something. Let’s just get out of here.”

Tom looked at Ed. “Are you sure you’re alright? Are you absolutely fine?” He said.

Ed was silent for a moment. “I’m positive. Let’s just get to work.”


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The night before…

Carl looked at what was in front of him. Both men were beaten to a bloody pulp.

“What the h-hell? Did I do this?” He looked at the woman. She slowly shook her head yes.

“Ma’am, you should go to the hospital. I-I gotta g-get outta h-here.” Carl ran off, leaving the bedazzled woman behind him.


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Jordan waited in that hospital room for several hours. The rain still fell, its rhythm like an annoying song you couldn’t get out of your head. Jordan looked at the boy in that bed. He didn’t look old at all. The doctor’s couldn’t explain what exactly happened to him. They simply came to the conclusion he merely fainted. They also said some about his genetic make-up being unusual.

“Kid,” Jordan said out loud. “You really should be worth my time. After all, I’ve got a baby to be after.”

As if an answer to his question, the kid started speaking in his sleep. Though, it ended up more like a lot of mumbling.

“He looks like me… and he looks like me… they both look like me… that can’t be… I’m…”

Man, Jordan thought. What is this kid mumbling about? Must be some pretty weird dream.

Before he knew, the boy’s eyes were opening, and he sat up in bed. He yawned, and looked over at Jordan Collier.

“Morning, Mr. Collier. Where exactly am I?”

“You’re in the hospital. You passed out earlier.”

“Really? I don’t recall any of that.”

“Kid, what’s your name?”

“I don’t really know. Any time I try to think of it, the word “Irony” comes to my mind.”

“Well, maybe your name is Irony. Still, what kind of parents would give you a name like that?”

“Parents? I…” The kid was interrupted when a man walked in.

“Excuse me, but could you tell me where I might find Room 108?”

“I think it’s just down the hall.” Jordan answered.

“Thanks…” The man walked away, although no one noticed the smirk on his face.

“That man… I think he’s…” the kid said.

“He’s what?”

“Never mind. Anyways, what should we start calling me? I can’t of my real name, or a decent replacement one.”

“I think we should just call you Irony for now.”

“That’s fine with me, I guess.” Irony sighed. This could take some getting used to.


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Edward stood at a shop, along with Tom and Diana.

“So,” Tom said. “Tell us what you saw.”

“Well,” these two guys were…” The woman began to get teary.

“You don’t have give any specifics or anything about that part.” Diana said.

“Alright. Anyways, this came up and told those men to go away, and then they attacked. He easily beat the crap out them though.”

Ed spoke up. “So what? It’s not that unlikely to see a guy easily take out two others. I can easily take out a small group of people.”

“Right,” Tom said. “Just like Elusive?”

“Hey, shut up! He was in-fricken-visible! You try fighting someone like that!”

“Whatever…” Tom looked back at the woman. “Anyways, what was the big deal about this guy? Like my friend over here said, it’s not too unlikely for a guy to beat up two others.”

“I know,” the woman said. “But it was how he moved. You really had to be there to understand it completely.”

“Any idea where this mystery vigilante lives?” Ed asked

“Yeah, actually. The police were able to find a match in their database based on the description I gave.” The woman wrote something down on a slip of paper. “Here’s his address.”

Ed took the slip. “Thanks. Guys, lets get to work.”


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Unbeknownst to the group, three figures were watching them from a distance.

“Uh oh,” one of them said. This man had been looking through a pair of binoculars.

“I think we picked the wrong girl to kidnap.”

“Why?” the second man asked.

“I think her husband is a 4400, and a powerful one too.”

“So what?” The third one said. “We can handle him. Besides, we’ve never got to chop up a 4400 before.”

“That’s not all though,” the first one continued. “That kid over, the one that’s kind of short, I think he’s the one the stopped Elusive and the terrorist at that 4400 quarantine place. This could be a problem…”