"Ed's boots thumped and Al's metal feet clanked against the hard concrete of the dark alley, and the tall buildings surrounding them casted long shadows on the ground. The darkness around them created a bleak mood, and it didn't help that the sky was pale grey in color, the looming clouds eliminating any chance of sunshine. They tramped through the puddles on the ground, the muddy water splashing over their legs and into their shoes (or armor, in Al's case). The quiet that seemed to fill the air was broken up by the angry bickering between the Elric brothers. The short 15 year old, Ed, kicked at the ground in an attempt to display his frustration.
'AL!' he screeched, 'You don't get it! It is my foe! We've been sworn enemies since the day we first crossed paths! And let me warn you - the worst path I have ever travelled.' Ed shook his head, remembering the day of their first deadly encounter. His much taller younger brother, Al, shook his metal head, the chinks in his armor clanking against each other.
He sighed and his empty voice echoed back and forth between the apartment buildings: 'You're exaggerating, Brother.' Ed spared no time in retorting to Al's obviously foolish statement.
'And here I thought you were the one person I could trust, Al.' Al let out another long breath in response to his sibling's claims, not sure how to convince him to consider ever coming to terms with his greatest "arch-nemesis". A pause in their speech created an awkward silence, until Al pieced together a rather sparse and minimal sentence to get his point across. And his point was a rather short one. Very 'to the point', as Al is when he needs to be.
'Ed, you do know your 'greatest adversary' is an inanimate, edible object.' Al spoke very delicately, so as to avoid disrupting his brother's very fragile web of emotions. His glowing red eyes looked worried as he turned to face the small blond, still waiting for a reaction. Ed's face appeared to be changing in color, and eventually, he exploded like the volcano of raging feelings Al knew him to be.
'GOD, AL! JUST COME OUT AND SAY IT! YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SO DAMN PARTICULAR ABOUT YOUR WORDS AROUND ME JUST BECAUSE I'M SMALL!' It took Ed just a few moments to realize what he had just called himself. He let out an even louder battle cry when it struck him. 'GODAMMIT AL! LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME SAY! I JUST CALLED MYSELF A RUNT SO SMALL EVEN A MOTHER OVERLOOKS HIM BECAUSE HE'S SO TINY HE'S NOT EVEN WORTH TAKING CARE OF!'
Al chuckled at Ed's sudden outburst. The familiarity of his brother's attitude was calming and almost comical, adding a small splotch of color to the dreary landscape.
Al knew that the only way bring his older sibling to peace was to do exactly what he had commanded: to come out and say it. And besides, he was looking forward to seeing how his brother would proceed this time. "Your alleged arch-enemy is… Milk." It sounded so silly that Al almost giggled, but he knew better than that when he was around Ed. The smaller Elric did not bother to reply, although Al could tell he was fighting to keep his quick tongue under control. He failed. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a blur of yellow fabric soared from the sky, landing behind the two brothers. Before the Elrics even had time to turn and face their true opponent (truer than milk, at least), his large, calloused hands had violently slammed into the ground, beginning a chain reaction known as alchemy.
Blue sparks rose from the surface of the Earth, filling the air and connecting with each other to create one giant, surging flow of alchemic energy. It towered over them, lingering in the air for several seconds before slamming down into the ground, shattering the concrete beneath the feet of the Elric brothers. Ed was now aware of their situation; the infamous Scar, a murderer who targeted only state alchemists, had come after him. He didn't give Scar a chance to attack again. Swiftly transmuting his automail into his classic blade, he darted forward, jabbing his hand at his competitor's arm. He cursed inwardly at himself when he missed his target by a centimeter, ducking as Scar's hand swooped down towards his face. Ed stepped back for a moment, letting Al take his place as he moved around to Scar's right side. He tracked the burly man's tattooed arm carefully, calculating his movements. He was aware that he could not miss his target again; if he did, he could be killed by who he believed to be a psychopath. Readying himself, he waited until Al glanced at him, nodding slightly.
Go now, his brother's red gaze seemed to say. Al jumped back, and Ed leapt into the spot where the armor had just been. Scar paused for a moment, unsure of whom he should go after, and it was all Ed needed to slash his blade down Scar's right arm. The cut landed in the middle of the transmutation circle tattooed onto his skin, the array now barely visible beneath the blood that dripped from his wound. Ed grinned his classic, shit-eating grin, beaming as Scar howled in pain and gripped the gash, blood leaking out from in between his fingers. The strike may have slowed Scar down, but it didn't have quite the desired effect. It did little more than fuel Scar's anger, and he roared with fury as he clamped his hand onto Ed's face and lifted him up as far as his arm would let him, beginning his transmutation. Ed barely heard Al's hollow scream through a haze of fear and flashing blue light. The transmutation hit him hard, similar to the feeling produced after having your face introduced to a sledgehammer. Multiple times. Scar slammed him down onto the shattered concrete with a loud THUD, his automail taking the brunt of the fall. Metal parts and plating broke before his eyes, the pieces scattering around him as he lay numb from the impact. His vision blurred until he could make out Al as nothing more than a looming grey blob - the last thing he was sure happened was Al lifting his battered body and wondering why he wasn't dead yet…"
"...and that's why he ended up in the hospital." Al concluded. Winry raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"You mean to tell me… That you argued over milk, then height while on a mission, took on a dangerous murderer of your own free will, almost died, AND RUINED MY PRECIOUS AUTOMAIL IN THE PROCESS?" Ed squirmed uncomfortably under Winry's stern gaze.
"Um… Yes?" He risked a glance up at her. She turned away from him, muttering what Ed thought to be angrily under her breath. Little did he know she was trying not to laugh. She fiddled with a screwdriver at her makeshift tool table in the hospital preceding her next round of interrogations.
"And why did you tell that story in the third person?" She demanded, her hands resting on her hips. The screwdriver remained in her grip.
Ed shrugged, looking thoughtful for a moment, then raised a decisive finger in the air. "It makes it seem more dramatic." He said matter-of-factly, his face completely serious. She couldn't take it anymore. She bent over, shaking with silent laughter. Tears slipped from her eyes, sliding over her skin and dripping, one by one, onto the linoleum floor. Ed and Al eyed her with equally confused expressions.
"Was it something I said?" Ed leaned over in Al's direction, his voice hardly more than a hushed whisper. Al didn't take his eyes off of Winry, his metal plates clanking as he shook his head in disbelief. After a while, though, Winry calmed down and assured the two confused brothers that she was fine. She dug around in her rectangular travel bag, pulling out a wrench and a bag of screws from the seemingly endless depths of her case.
"So," she began, menacingly fiddling with her wrench, "let's get started on that automail of yours, shall we?"
"You're lucky you only ruined the plating this time." She said.
"Uh-huh." He agreed.
"It would have taken a lot longer to rewire everything altogether." She put a finger to her lips thoughtfully, as if counting off the number of hours and all-nighters it would take to complete such a task.
"Mmhm." He replied.
"Come to think of it, I haven't even been able to check-"
A pause.
"Are you even listening to me?" Winry asked, glaring down at the back of Ed's head accusingly.
"Yep." Ed nodded slightly. It took him a moment to fully process his mechanic's words.
Maybe a little more than a moment.
"Wait, what?" He craned his neck back to look at her.
"I asked if you were listening to me."
"Yeah, sure." he answered. She rolled her eyes, sighing loudly over the sound of the his automail's plates scraping against each others as she re-installed them. She finished turning in the first few screws just as a loud cry resounded through the halls of the hospital, traveling through the walls and the ceiling.
"NOOOOOOO!" The voice wailed, and it echoed throughout the building, the tortured sound never ending. Ed shot up in his sterile hospital bed, the paper thin sheets crinkling with the sudden movement.
"What the hell was that?" Ed asked, already knowing the answer.
"No idea," Winry and Al responded simultaneously, their voices monotonous with the shock of the wrangled scream.
Ed sprang to his feet, grabbing his red coat from the bedside table, sliding it around his shoulders and running out the door. His automail foot, however, remained exposed, as he did remember his coat but did not remember his shoes...
His bare feet padded quickly across the plastic tile, his mismatched feet making a clip pat noise as he proceeded, passing door after door of patients. He had made it halfway down the hall before Winry and Al burst out from his room and followed him. They peered around every corner and searched behind every door, but they found nothing, nothing and more nothing - until at last, behind door number 342, they discovered the source of the sound.
Ed pounded on the door, further ruining his automail arm that was already in a haphazard state. BANG BANG BANG; the door shook under the pressure, but it did not give way.
"Let us in!" He commanded. When the person inside ignored him, he began to whine. "Come onnnnn, I can't stand out her forever." He paused, but no response came from inside of the room. He tried ramming the door down with his shoulder, but the only thing it accomplished was disconnecting some more of the nerves in his automail. When he came apart from the door, he yelped in pain, and still there was no sound from within the hospital room.
Ed turned to face his companions, who had by now caught up with him. The fluorescent lights of the hospital reflected off the beads of sweat that dotted his red face, and he was quite a sight for his brother and friend. They contained their laughter, though, because of the severity of the situation. "So how do we get in? Ideas are welcome." He waited for new suggestions on how to access the room, for he had none.
Winry slapped a hand to her forehead. "Ed, you're the Fullmetal Alchemist for god's sake. Just use your alchemy to break the door down." Ed pivoted on his heel, hiding his shame at not coming up with this most obvious idea himself. His arms moved upward, then toward each other, as though drawn by a magnetic force. Once his hands had connected, he drew them apart and slammed them into the ground, creating an alchemic reaction; a large stone fist grew from the ground, crashing through the door and spewing splinters into the wreckage.
Ed stepped through the opening he had made, careful to make sure that he wouldn't step on a chunk of wood. Still walking on tiptoes, he surveyed the scene around him. He stood in a room just like his own, the white walls and sheets and ceiling and floor overwhelming. Ok, Ed thought. There's a window overlooking a parking lot bordered with trees on the right wall, a cabinet filled with medications and syringes beside the door, and a white bed in the middle of the room, moved all the way up against the back wall. He finished his mental inventory and was ready to move on when he did a double take. Hold on... Is that a - DEAD BODY! Oh god, a patient died here. That must have been why someone screamed! He felt short of breath. He quickly, frantically spun around to alert his friends, but they had already seen it too. Al was preparing to call a nurse for help, but Ed stopped him when he noticed blue light coming emanating from behind the bed, creating a ghoulish glow. Cautiously, he approached the radiating color, terrified of what he might find. He knew already what was there, and yet still he wished for it to be anything but.
Around the corner of the bed, Ed found exactly what he had been dreading since he noticed the glow - the edges a massive transmutation circle showed from behind the legs of the bed, and Ed continued towards it, seeing more and more of the array. It was a human transmutation circle, the pattern written in chalk from one of the doctor cabinets. As the alchemy intensified, Ed quickened his pace, making all the way around the bed with the dead body; the giant transmutation circle was now fully within his view, as well as the young girl behind the taboo.
He panicked.
"Hey," he said shakily, reaching out a trembling hand to try to calm her. "You don't want to do that." She looked up at him, her large green eyes already brimming with tears.
"She was my sister," the girl whispered, her angry voice bordering on a growl. "I've been studying this practice for years, since my sister got sick. I know that I can bring her back." The blue light grew stronger, welling up, higher, higher, higher. The small alchemist realized that he had no time to explain the costs of committing such a crime, and decided to go straight for the takedown. He dug his feet into the ground, both the real one and the metal one. He, just as a spring, leapt from the floor, tackling the girl. Her long red braids tangled with Ed's limp ponytail, keeping the two stuck together. They landed hard on the cold floor, right on the edge of the array. The older Elric felt a wave of relief sweep over him, so grateful that they were in the clear.
Or so he thought.
The transmutation had reached a phase at which it could not be stopped; even with her hands no longer on the edge of the circle, the transmutation continued to grow. Ed shrieked.
"GET OUT OF HERE! AL! WINRY! THE TRANSMUTATION ISN'T GOING TO STOP! LEAVE ME HERE AND GO!" But, as usual, Al and Winry ignored Ed's demands and ran in the opposite direction than he wanted them to - straight to his side. They leaned down next to him, not aware of the danger that they had just put themselves in.
It took only a few more moments for an eye to flicker open in the middle of the array. Its pupil darted around wildly, taking in the scene. Ed held his breath, frozen next to the now terrified girl.
The eye fixed its gaze on him.
Ed stared back in horror.
Small, black hands erupted from the array, their stubby fingers reaching towards the clustered group of people. They grabbed the girl first, snatching her from Ed's grip. He yelped as he felt them entwining themselves around his arms and legs, sucking him into the middle of the circle as if it were a hurricane. He risked a glance over his shoulder. He began to struggle more when he realized they had seized Al and Winry, hauling the two along with them as well. Slowly, the hands increased in number, covering his eyes and snagging themselves in his clothes and clutching his limbs until he lost sense of what was up and what was down.
And then the world went black.