"Al! Hurry up!" Ed called as he went ahead off the train leaving his younger brother to carry all of their bags.
"Wait brother! No fair! Why do I have to carry all of the bags?"
"Because you're apparently so much bigger than me humph!" Al just sighed at his brother's childishness.
Earlier on the train
"So are you two headed East?" a fellow train passenger asked.
"Yeah, we are going there to look for something" Ed explained while looking out the window feeling restless. Ed exchanges glances with Al and he could tell Al felt the same way. They heard a rumor that could be the Philosopher's stone and couldn't wait to see for themselves.
"So are you two related?" The passenger innocently asked, clueless as to why a boy so young and man in a suit of armor would be traveling so far to look for something.
"Yeah, I guess we haven't introduced ourselves yet- Al starts being his usual polite self when his brother cuts in.
"We're the Elric brothers, ever heard of them?"
"Hmmm Elric…Elric…Ooooh! You mean the famous Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric?"
"I thought it was weird you were wearing a suit of armor! Is it just for your title or do you wear it in battles too?"
"Nn-no it's not me!" the flustered Al tries to hurry and correct the passenger until the train seems to get a bit darker and Al looks over to see…
Ed's face is covered by his hair but you can clearly see the bulging vein on his forehead and his fists shaking in anger.
"IT'S ME! I AM THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST BOOOO!" Ed shouts in discontent.
"What? Him? But he's so young and small! Are you sure it's not you who's the alchemist? With that big body of yours, surely you could become a state alchemist!" The naïve passenger asks Al.
"DON'T CALL ME A SHORTY MIDGET!" Ed screams as he tries to start the usual fight but is held back by Al.
End of flashback
"You know brother, he didn't really call you a shorty midget…" Al tried to reason
"Doesn't matter! He implied it by calling me short!"
*sigh* "Anyways now where are we headed to now?"
"For now let's go check out the town and find a place to stay tonight."
Later at a café
Ed POV
"Hey mister, tell me about this town. I heard there were strange things happening…" Yeah, like things related to the Philosopher's stone…
"Huh? Oh yeah, it seems that there's a new religious group that came to this town talking about how there are different universes and they claim to have knowledge on how to travel through time and space to get to those different dimensions. But I don't believe it for a second. After all none of them have actually succeeded and yet they still claim that the town should house them because they are almighty and what not."
Che… this doesn't sound like the philosopher's stone at all… it's just another group of people blindly following their fantasies to blind themselves from the truth…
"Thanks for the info mister. But you're right. There's no way that is all true."
"Oh? I'm surprised you don't believe it. Aren't kids these days into that kind of thing?"
"Kid? Look here old man! I'll have you know that I'm an atheist! As an alchemist, I don't believe in anything that doesn't have science to back it up." Geez who does this man think he is, calling me a kid humph!
"Oh? You don't believe in other dimensions boy?" I turned around to the source of the voice and saw a woman with a dark blue almost black looking cape on sitting in the corner of the café. The corner had bad lighting and the woman's cloak was covering her face so I couldn't see her well but by the tone of her voice I could tell she was smirking.
"Yeah that right. How can someone truly say there are other dimensions if no one had been to any other than here? It's just something people made up when they didn't want to have to deal with their problems and wanted to daydream about being somewhere else." And who was she calling boy? I'm not a kid!
"Well aren't you smart boy. But I can turn that right back at you. Since no one has been able to travel to other dimensions, how can you prove they don't exist? Isn't it natural to think that if there is this dimension that we live in then there is a possibility that there are others as well?"
Who was this lady? There was something about her that I didn't like and it wasn't just because of the fact that she kept calling me boy…
"Humph. Nice theory lady but tell me that again when there is solid proof. Come on Al let's go." I get up and put the money for our drinks on the table and get up to leave with Al right behind me but right as we were about to go out the door we hear the lady say,
"8 o'clock boy. If you want proof then come to our discussion and demonstration session in front of the church."
"Yeah yeah maybe if we have time. Bye old hag." As we leave I faintly heard the lady whisper,
"I look forward to seeing you boy." Something about the way she said it made my skin crawl…
"So what are we gonna do brother?"
"What do you mean Al?"
"You know what I mean, the session! S-E-SS-ION!"
"What about it?" Ed huffed at his brother.
"Weeell? Are we gonna go?"
"Well unlike other people we don't have the free time to go."
"But brother. Stop being so stubborn, you know the only reason we came here is to learn about the rumors and isn't this the best way to find out more about them?"
"…. *sigh* Fine. We'll go to the stupid session. But if they start rambling on about how we can travel through time and space if we follow their beliefs then I'm leaving. Understood Al?"
"Yes sir!" Al said doing a fake salute.