Spoilers: Not so much from FMA, after Dublith somewhere. Takes place during the last HP book.
This is a plotbunny I got when I tried to decide if I should let them use transport transmutations in a longer FMA fic I'm planing. I decided against it since I would have to use loots of energy to make a plot that stops Ed from turning in to a blond version of Nightcrawler. (now that's a scary thought...) But since I already had taken time to make up the science-mumbo-jumbo for it I thought I could use it in a short story, and then I added a confused Harry just for fun.
English is not my first language, this is the first piece I write in English that isn't a school assignment and I don't have a beta reader. Hence all corrections are more then welcome.
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Transport transmutations.
When you were working with advanced alchemy, especially in the experimental stages, you learned to expect that sometimes you got unexpected results. Sometimes it was harmless, often it was dangerous, from time to time disastrous, but on rare occasions the results were plain strange.
This most certainly belong in the last category, Edward Elric concluded while he watched his brother happily chatter away whit the quite disoriented teenager that somehow had ended up in Ed's transmutation circle. The poor guy did seem to get more and more confused as Alphonse tried to explain what he and Ed had tried to accomplish.
Well, at least the guy had calmed down a bit, courtesy to Alphonse. Al was good with that stuff, he always did get along with people. His friendly and gentle personality got trough regardless of the fact that his soul was trapped in a huge spiked suit of armour. Yes, the guy had calmed down and was currently sipping from a steaming cup of tea Alphonse somehow had produced while he nibbled at one of the sandwiches Ed was supposed to have for lunch (it had taken Al some serious persuasion to separate Ed from his food but the stranger had apparently found the argument reassuring). In the end it meant that Edward finally had some time to pounder about how the hell this had happened.
The whole thing was about transport transmutations, a rarely used branch of alchemy. The theories was well known, Ed had come across them already in his fathers books, but they was seldom put to practical use. In short transport transmutations was a way to transport things from A to B by first bending and then construct a portal trough the fifth dimension. It was possible to send bout animals and humans through since you didn't transmute the object you wanted to transport, but rather the fabric of reality. If you got it to work correctly the applications was endless, but to be able to use even the simplest form of transport transmutations you had to learn the maths for equations in fivedimensional geometry. Most alchemists didn't find the technique worth the effort but to Ed who had the knowledge to transmute souls, an object that existed in at least ten dimensions however not in the first four, fivedimensional geometry wasn't that much of a challenge.
After the initial process of memorizing the theories and equations, and then understanding them bout Ed and Al was soon able to transport things between two predrawn circles, starting with dead objects, advancing to live animals and finally using Ed himself. After that the pace of progress slowed down when Ed decided to adapt the transmutation to his own circleless technique. This wasn't something he could learn from books since no one ever tried it before but after some hard work and careful experiments Ed got it right. He was now able to clap his hands, put them in front of himself, transmute the portal, take a step forward and end up by their old house in Rizenbool, a hidden corner of Central HQ or their teachers house in Dublit, places where he had left carefully drawn destination circles.
It was a remarkable feat that got the supervisors to choke on their coffee when he demonstrated it during his yearly assessment. But despite the effort he had put in to it Ed newer used the technique in the field, and for one simple reason: Alphonse. Passing trough a portal put strain to body, mind and soul, but not more than any normal human could handle. The outcome for a soul bound to a dead object was, on the other hand, highly uncertain. It meant that while Ed could disappear in thin air Al couldn't, and Ed would newer leave his brother behind.
It was of course awfully irritating to not be able to use such a useful skill, especially since Alphonse now had regained his memory of the Gate and could transmute without circles, but they had had more pressing matters to worry about and dropped the subject. Or at least dropped it until it hit them that maybe, just maybe it would be possible to use a modified transport circle to create a portal to the dimension of the Gate. A way to reach the Gate that had nothing to do with human transmutation was definitely worth some effort.
And so they had got to work, with the usual Elric determination. The first step was to make sure that Al could go trough a normal transport transmutation without any nasty side effects and Ed had put all of his genius to use when he had modified the circles. It was a difficult task and he wasn't happy until he had managed to reduce the calculated strain to a minimum. Then he worked through the problem again and then again. And after that he made Al pick his work to pieces in search for errors. Edward usually wasn't the most patient person, but he was thorough and even more so when Al's life could be at stake.
But there was a limit to how far they could get with mere theories. It was time to test it.
A patch of forest twenty minutes walk from the Rockbell's house was just the environment they needed. Lots of space and out of sight from curios eyes. Al cleared the ground from leafs and Ed transmuted the bare earth to smooth stone, then they bout picked up a piece of chalk and began to draw.
"This is it then, Al", Ed said and patted his pants to get rid of the chalk dust while he carefully eyed the complicated circles they had drawn. Everything appeared to be in order, but for a brief moment Ed wished that there had been something to complain about, something that could give them a reason to wait just a little bit longer before they tried this transmutation. Dammit Ed! You know that the theory is perfect, get a grip! he franticly told himself but couldn't help the treacherous voice in his mind, Yeah, that's what you thought last time to, it whispered. Ed couldn't lie to himself, just admit it, you are scared, and that was the truth.
There was a hard lump of fear in Ed's stomach and he couldn't get rid of it no mater what he did. What if he was wrong again? What if he managed to screw up Al's life even more? What if he actually killed his brother this time? Killed him in an idiotic transmutation that was just the initial stage of this new plan to reach the Gate? Stop this! Not a single one of those 'what ifs' will make any difference. If transport transmutations hadn't been so damn complicated. Soul alchemy and dimensional alchemy; the only disciplines of alchemy that didn't revolve around matter, and Ed was about to use bout in a home made transmutation no other alchemist had ewer thought of. He did have the right to be nervous.
"Well, here goes nothing", Ed said, caught his brothers eye, got a reassuring nod, turned back towards the circle and concentrated. There was no way in hell he would allow this transmutation to rebound or harm his brother any other way, thus he poured lots of power in to the circle, but kept it under strict control.
Everything was working just fine. Ed had activated the destination circle and stabilised it while Al prepared to do the same with the sending circle, but then something went wrong, in a highly unusual manner.
Before Al had got a chance to create a portal there was a loud bam! and a blackhaired teenager appeared in Eds circle. After the first confusion the teenager backed of, pulled a wooden stick out of his pocket and pointed it first at Ed and then at Al in an obviously aggressive way. The Elrics was chocked but instinctively they reacted to the treat by taking their fighting stances, which got the stranger even more tense. What the hell is he, a homunculus? Ed's mind rushed trough the different possibilities, likely as well as unlikely. Taking their usual luck, or rather lack there of, in account he couldn't help but expect the worst.
The boy stared at Al, then turned towards Ed who was closer. Ed was just about to say something along the line who the hell are you? or maybe calm down! when Al's armour creaked. The teenager whirled around, pointed the stick at Al and shouted something. A bluetinted withe flash shot out and hit Al's breastplate square on, knocking him to the ground with a loud clank!
Ed felt a moment of chock but then cold rage surged trough him. The bastard attacked Alphonse! That wooden stick was obviously the medium for his alchemy, like Mustangs gloves, and had to be dealt with. Ed dashed forward, clapped and transmuted his automail in a single smooth motion and then cut the stick to pieces before the teenager could react.
The boy stared at the wooden handle that was all that was left of the stick like he didn't believe what had just happened. Then he lifted his head and his eyes grew wide when he found himself staring down along the sharp blade of Eds automail that pointed straight at his throat. He gasped sharply but then seemed to collect himself.
"I...I don't want a fight", he said, slowly lifting his arms and let go of the handle.
"Then you shouldn't have attacked my little brother", Ed snapped, practically growling. What the hell did he do to Alphonse! Will he be okay? Ed was scared and angry, but most of all he was furious. Furious that the cowardly bastard had attacked Alphonse without as much as a warning. Furious with himself because he hadn't seen the attack coming, hadn't been able to stop it, but mostly furious since it was he how somehow had summoned this boy.
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AN: That was it, first chapter finished. I plan to make three of them and next cap will be (mostly) from Harry's POV. So what do you think? I know there is a bit to much pseudo-science-crap, normally I would spread it out more in a longer story, but that was the inspiration for this story. Oh, and Harry really managed to get on Ed's bad side in one go, don't you think? I'm so evil...
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