Roy Mustang was just about to tell the potential State Alchemists to begin the written part of their exams when the doors burst open. He glared at the panting figure who had entered. "You're late," he said.
"I just barely got off work!" protested the young woman. "I didn't even have time to go home and wash up, in case you couldn't tell."
Roy could tell. Her face, hands, and clothes were covered with soot. "What are you?" he asked. "A chimneysweep?"
"Yep!" she said cheerfully. "Anna Johnson, at your service."
"Well, Miss Johnson, why don't you take a seat before you waste any more of everyone else's time?"
Anna's grin faded. "Fine, be that way." She went to an empty chair.
Satisfied, Roy turned away and said, "Begin." As the hopeful alchemists started their exam, Roy felt something strike the back of his head. Instantly, he turned back to Anna, but she was working hard on her exam. Looking on the floor, Roy found a small piece of coal. Again he looked at Anna, and this time he noticed that the soot on her hands was gone.
Roy neatly suppressed a smile as he sat down to wait for the end of the exam. Insubordination was a quality he rather admired in an alchemist. He couldn't wait to see if this…chimneysweep…succeeded.
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Anna Johnson waited impatiently for her summons. She had been specifically told not to be late for the second part of her exam, the interview, and now of course, they keep her waiting!
At last the doors opened and she found herself in a dark room. The only light fell onto a single chair placed in the center, leaving the interviewers themselves in shadow.
"Have a seat, Miss Johnson," said a familiar voice.
"Oh, it's you again," Anna sighed as she sat down.
"I'm glad to see you bothered to clean up this time," said Roy.
Anna smiled with mock sweetness. "Only for your benefit, Colonel. Now how about that interview?"
"One moment. About your written exam…"
"I'm assuming I passed, since I'm here?"
"Yes, but barely."
"Well, at least I passed. And considering the fact that I was almost stuck in a chimney two minutes before I took it, I'd say that's quite an accomplishment."
"Very well," said Roy, and began the interview. "What form of alchemy do you specialize in?"
"I make things go boom," said Anna, grinning.
"Um…would you care to elaborate?"
Anna rolled up the sleeve on her right arm to reveal a transmutation circle tattooed on the inside of her wrist. "I use this to rearrange the molecules of a substance and create different forms of explosives. Here, take a look." She pulled something out of a pouch hanging from her belt and flipped it at Roy. "It's one of my inventions."
Roy held the small object up to the light. It looked and felt exactly like a coin, but etched onto its surface was a transmutation circle. "What is it?" he asked.
"I call them boomcoins," Anna explained. "Each one is a piece of dynamite covered by a thin layer of scrap metal. I activate the circle and throw the boomcoin at my intended target. It makes quite a bang."
"I hope you understand my concern when I say that this circle looks a bit like the ones used by the late Crimson Alchemist."
Anna's gray eyes grew steely. "I'm aware of the similarity of our circles and our alchemy. The similarities end there. Unlike Kimblee, I change molecules not into unstable arrangements, but reactive ones. I make proper bombs, not…human ones."
She stared at the floor, seeing something that had happened years before, and continued. "A friend of my family was killed by Kimblee, and I was there when it happened. I was ten. I got hit by…by…pieces of the victim." Anna paused and lifted her shirt just enough for the interviewers to see the long scar across her abdomen. "This is more than enough of a reminder of the Crimson Alchemist, and I don't want to be compared to him again. Next question."
Roy looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, but did not pursue the subject. "Why do you wish to become a state alchemist?"
Anna smirked. "I know from experience that, alchemical powers or not, not many people care to listen to a female chimneysweep's ideas, no matter how good they might be. If I were a state alchemist, I would be better qualified to help people. Also, I'd have the resources I need to continue inventing new explosives, all of which will be at the military's disposal. Once they're finished, of course."
Anna's voice was serious, but her eyes said otherwise. She knew that such an offer was enticing. She bit her lip to keep from grinning as Roy tried to stare her down.
"Miss Johnson," said Roy at last. "You may be excused."
Anna's face fell. "Oh…"
"But do not be late for your practical exam."
"You mean I passed?" asked Anna, surprised.
Roy nodded.
"YES!" she yelled. "Er…I mean…that's good to hear."
"I look forward to seeing your demonstration."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll be blown away, sir," said Anna. She gave a mock salute and left the room.
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Anna arrived for the third and last part of her alchemy exam wearing her soot-covered work clothes. If Roy wasn't mistaken, they were the exact same set of clothes she had worn during her written test.
"If you pass this exam," he asked. "And become a member of the military, is this all we can expect from you?"
"When I pass, I will continue to perform alchemy as I always have," said Anna. "These clothes are comfortable and I don't worry about them getting ripped, burned or dirty."
"Would you at least consider wearing clean work clothes when you are working with us?" asked Roy, somewhat hopefully.
"What? These are clean! I just washed them two weeks ago!" Anna exclaimed, greatly enjoying the look of disgust that crossed the Colonel's face. "Anyway, when do I start?"
"Right now," said Roy.
"Alright then." Anna stepped onto the examination grounds and knelt, pressing her right hand to the ground. A thick wall rose up between her and the observers, with a line of small round windows set at eye level.
"Safety first!" she called cheerfully as she began transmuting the earth once more. She created a pillar, two stories high and six feet in diameter. Arranged all over the pillar were fire-based circles, and out of the center of each of the circles came a piece of string; a fuse. All of these fuses twisted together into a single strand, which Anna picked up.
She walked as far away as that master fuse would allow and a raised a barrier for herself to take shelter behind. Reaching into the pouch on her belt, she pulled out a very small boomcoin, placed it on the ground and put the master fuse on top of it. She touched it and drew her hand back quickly. The mini-boomcoin had only enough explosives in it to produce a small flame, just enough to light the fuse.
Roy watched all this with great interest. Anna was creative, to say the least, and no doubt there was some sort of surprise beyond a grand explosion. She—wait. Roy could not quite see the top of Anna's pillar through the window he watched through, but something was not right. He risked a peek around the barrier. "Um, Miss Johnson?" he called to her.
"Yes, Colonel?" She glanced at him, keeping most of her attention on the quickly burning fuse, but then looked back, confused. Why did he have that expression on his face, and what was he pointing at? She followed his gaze to the top of her pillar, and gasped. Someone was standing up there, and the fuse was getting ever shorter.
"Dammit!" she shouted, and ran out from behind her shelter. She saw instantly that there was no use trying to race the fuse to the pillar, so she dove to the ground, grinding her right palm into the dirt. Please let me be fast enough!
The fuses reached the pillar as alchemical light flashed from Anna's tattoo. There was only a split second of absolute silence before the pillar exploded, tossing her into the air like a doll.
She landed almost a hundred feet away, flat on her back. She lay there for a few seconds, staring at the colorful fireworks that now decorated the sky, before her back actually started to hurt. When it did, she groaned loudly. She'd definitely be feeling that one in the morning. And the morning after that, and the morning after that…
"Are you alright?" asked Roy. He and the other observers had been safely ducking behind their own barrier and had seen Anna go flying over them.
"Oh, absolutely. I'm skipping through a damn field of daisies," Anna snapped at him. "Did you see the cylinder?"
"What cylinder?"
With a loud clank, an large iron cylinder landed twenty feet from where Anna was laying. It lay still on its side, but then started to rock back and forth. Anna painfully got to her feet, hissing as her back complained. She strode slowly, but purposefully towards the cylinder. She kicked at it, and the other alchemists could now hear a muffled yell from inside.
"You're the stupidest person alive, do you know that?" she yelled at the cylinder. She laid her hand against it and split it open, revealing a young man inside. "You're lucky I felt like saving your worthless life, Thin-air!"
"Yeah, thanks," said the young man as he climbed out of the cylinder. "Well, see you around, Anna."
"Oh, no you don't!" She grabbed him by his jacket collar and pulled him back. "You just—owww!" Anna's poor and sore back gave an unpleasant throb and the pain disappeared along with the rest of the world.
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She awoke in a bed in the infirmary, lying on her stomach in order to ease her bruised back. The first thing she saw was Roy sitting in a chair by her bed.
"Go…away." She growled, closing her eyes again.
"Alright, I'll go," said Roy. "I just came to give you this." He put something on her bedside table and left.
Not bothering to look, Anna groped along the table until her fingers met a round object. No way…
She opened her eyes. Sure enough, it was a state alchemist pocket-watch. She grabbed the paper that the watch had been on top of and scanned it quickly. It was a bona fide document that said that she, Anna Johnson, had been named the Blackpowder Alchemist!
Even though he had almost left the building, Roy could still hear her raucous "Whoo-hooo!"