I will not make the same mistakes that you did. A young girl glared at a man's retreating
back thinking furiously, I would never leave my own family on the street because of
something so minute! The girl blinked her burning eyes, fighting the urge to cry. "I hope
you are happy, now Father!" she flung the cruel words out. The man walking away from
her hesitated for a second then continued walking away. The girl struggled against the
ropes that bound her hands and feet, finally giving up, and then an idea popped into her
head. She quickly started to scribble a shaky transmutation circle in the ground she
placed her hands on the sides of it the best she could and willed it to work. A flash of
blinding blue light told her that she had succeed as the ropes slunk away from her hands
and turned to ashes on the ground. Her hands moving quickly she untied the ropes on her
feet and forcing her cramped legs to support her weight she stood up. She began to move
stiffly but soon was moving at a painful sprint as her leg muscles threatened to give out,
she soon collided with a man in a dazzling blue uniform, his hands tucked into his
pockets. She fell to the ground and blink in surprise looking up at the man's face, it was
the hard face of a solider, but it showed the kindness of a gentleman. The she saw the
badge sown onto his thick fall coat, and felt her face flush. She hurriedly dropped her
head to the ground in a polite bow and managed to squeeze out a weak apology to the
military officer in front of her.
He sniffed at her and grabbed her by the elbow forcing her to stand up, "Please don't
ever bow to me, I am not the type of person who expects one too." He said with a
lopsided smirk.
The girl was surprised to see that standing up she was a full head taller then the
person who stood in front of her. "I am sorry, Sir. I was just surprised, that's all." She
braced herself, ready for a smack on the face, when none came she looked down into the
man's face, he was smiling.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Maria, Maria Silva." The girl responded, drawing her self up, the Silva name
was well respected and it would probably be days before the man found out that she had
been cast out of the family, and by that time she expected to be long gone.
"Edward Elric, state alchemist," said the stranger smiling at her.
Maria was stunned, "You're the noob?"
"Who you calling a noob?" shouted the boy, clearly offended.
"Sorry, I just expected someone taller for the new alchemist." Snickered Maria,
amused by the boy's reaction.
"Who you calling so small that you couldn't see with out a magnifying glass!"
shouted Edward, straining to get at her as a metal arm wrapped around his waist to keep
him from her. The small boy struggled some more, kicking the air and flailing about,
before he started to calm down.
Maria took a step back in surprise and looked up to see a large metal helmet look
down at her from on top on a large metal body, and fainted.
…………………………………………..
"Is she alright?" said the voice to the right of Maria as she groggily started to
wake.
"Shut up! She is waking," said a very commanding voice that had the obvious
hint of boredom in it.
Maria sat up, her eyes flying open. "Where am I?" she asked worried looking
around at the unfamiliar place, it appeared to be an office with a small couch on which
she was placed, it had a large table, a desk with lots of clutter on it, some randomly
placed chairs, a bookcase on the far wall and many strange people lounging around the
room in no apparent order. Some looked bored and some looked just plain, well,
uninterested, such as one was having more fun seeing how many puffs of a cigarette he
could hold in his mouth before he started to cough while another thought that writing up
some reports was more interesting then the unconscious girl laying (now sitting up, fully
awake) on the couch.
"Calm down," commanded a voice that belonged to a man sitting at the desk, his
dark hair falling over his eyes as he scribbled something on a piece of paper, "You're in
my office, so don't touch anything."
"Oh, nice Roy, how mannered you are to someone who just woke up," mumbled
the short boy, Edward… remembered Maria.
"Your office, and who are you? All I can remember is bumping into the chibi
while walking to the military head quarters in Central."
"Don't call me so short that a bug could squash me!" started Ed but he was
drowned out by the flood of questions that came from the people around the room, all
aimed at her.
"Quiet!" said the man behind the desk loudly, "You said you were on your way to
the head quarters, why?" he demanded directing his comment at the girl.
Maria was caught of guard, so she didn't try to make any excuses, "I was on my
way to head quarters to talk with a colonel Mustang, also known as the Flame Alchemist.
I want to become his apprentice. I was already told by a state alchemist that I had what it
takes to become a state alchemist but he said my style of alchemy was strange and that I
needed strange teacher."
"Why did you choose Colonel Mustang?" said the man behind the desk his eyes
narrowing, everyone turned to look at Maria who was fighting a blush that threatened to
make her face look like a raspberry.
"I have my reasons…" mumbled Maria nervously.
"Then lets hear them."
"I thought that maybe he would teach me since his style of alchemy is the one that I
thought was the best! The attack works extremely well because, one it surprises the
enemy with the heat and light that the attack causes, and two because it deals with the
manipulation of an ELEMENT!" said Maria quickly, responding to the man's stern tone
of voice.
"The man at the desk looked slightly shocked and replied, "How do you know all
this about the attack that the Flame Alchemist uses?"
"I did my homework.," was the snippy reply, everyone's eyes grew wide, no body
had EVER responded to the Colonel that way except for Ed, but he had soon learned his
mistake.
The man's eyes narrowed and he snapped his gloved fingers sending a stream of
flame shooting towards the girl. Surprised Maria held up her hand, the flame caught into
her hand and formed into a small ball. Maria smirked at the man behind the desk who had
flushed and said to the flames simply, "Return." The fire then took its cue and flew at the
surprised person behind the desk singing his jacket to reveal a bright blue uniform with
small gold stars on the shoulders and the man quickly removed it trying to beat the flames
from consuming the jacket.
Maria gasped and ran over to the jacket, laying her bare hand over the growing
flames extinguishing them with a small puff of smoke.
Suddenly a laugh broke out from the small blonde boy who was still sitting next
to the couch, "Mustang! You got owned!" he managed to shout before his laughing made
him fall over gasping for air. Maria barely heard him she was too busy inspecting the
hole that she had made in the jacket.
"This won't do at all," she whispered pinching the fabric of the jacket and pulling
it to cover the hole.
"I don't think that the jacket would fit the same if you plan to sew it like tha-" The
colonels voice trailed off as Maria let go of the fabric revealing the threads had started to
grow weaving themselves together in order to fill the hole. When they were done the
jacket looked as if it had never been scorched. "How the hell…"