Prologue
"I can't believe that Colonel Bastard made us go through all of Tucker's work," Ed complained as he entered the Tucker manor with Al. They walked through the eerily silent house towards his lab, where all his notes on chimeras was located. A few doors and staircases later and they had arrived in the horrid lab where Tucker had illegally transmuted his own daughter and dog into one, all to pass his state examination. It made Ed sick just to think about it, so he put it in the back of his mind as he entered the lab. He stopped in the doorway, staring at the room.
It was completely empty.
All of the crates, full of failed chimeras, were gone. All of the stacks of research, piled throughout the room haphazardly, were gone. "What the hell!" Ed burst out, startling his younger brother, who had yet to see the missing work. Ed stomped into the room, going straight to his desk to search the drawers, though it was all in vain. Everything was gone.
"Somebody must've stolen it," Al said.
"Yeah, but how did they get in here? The security's been air tight since Tucker was arrested, so no one should've been able to enter," Ed replied hotly, very annoyed. In a bad mood, he kicked out at a nearby box that had been stacked upon another, knocking it to the floor in a cloud of dust. After a coughing fit, Ed regretted his action. Now mad at the room, he stomped out, leaving Al to scramble to catch up to him. Ed practically stomped all the way back to Central to let Mustang know what had happened.
Everyone in the office quickly realized Ed wasn't in a good mood by the way he busted the door open, stomping all the way to Mustang's office and entering without so much as a knock, startling a 'working' Mustang. His eyes narrowed when he saw Ed back in his office so soon after dismissing him. "What, you finish going through it all already? Or did you get bored?" Mustang teased, his head resting on his fist, which was propped up on his desk. Ed scowled in response as he slouched down onto his couch.
"No," Ed replied grumpily. Mustang raised an eyebrow.
"No," he repeated. "Then what are you doing here? I want that research organized and catalogued," he said, growing angry that the kid had skipped out on his duties.
"We can't," Ed said exasperated. Mustang was still giving him a confused look, so he elaborated. "The research, it's all gone. Not a single bit is left to catalogue." Mustang's face now expressed the shock he felt when he heard what Ed had said.
"How is it all gone? We've had security on the place since he left," Mustang asked, the disbelief clear in his voice. Ed scowled again.
"We don't know. All I know is the research isn't there. So now what are we going to do?" Ed asked, curious as to what they were going to do now. Since he couldn't catalogue Tucker's research, he was now free to research other, more important things, like the Philosopher's stone. Mustang was deep in thought, so it took him a bit to answer Ed's question.
"Nothing right now. I'll ask the investigation team to see if they can figure out who took it, so until they do all we can do is wait," Mustang said, and Ed took that as an invitation to do whatever he wanted. He jumped off the couch without so much as a goodbye and left, surprising Mustang. "Just stay in Central and don't get into any trouble!" the Colonel shouted to the brothers' receding figures.
So this is basically just setting up the rest of the story, which will continue on in the next chapter. I'm thinking about doing longer chapters with longer updates, but I'm not totally sure yet. Let me know what you think of it so far in a review :)