AN.

THIS IS MY FIRST STORY ON FANFICTION. EVER. !

If you're reading this message now, thanks for trying this story out. . . I'm not sure anyone will read this because the summary is so crap . . . As you can see I'm not good at summaries. . . Yeah, moving on . . . Right.

Oh, I guess I should say thanks to my sister who helped me out quite a bit with my story, and may you eternally annoy me forever more . . . love you . . .

DISCLAIMER : Thanks for assuming that I am the creator of FMA, I would give you a cookie right now if I had any, but the problem with that idea is that I would never have any cookies to give you because I would of eaten them all by then . . . Sorry . . . . . . . cookies rock . . . Anyway, even though I am really awesome, I do not own FMA, OK? . . . . . . I hope I don't need to write a disclaimer every chapter. That would be so annoying . . .

Shrink-Ray

Chapter 1 - Research

Ed threw down another book, exasperated by the lack of leads they had been getting on the Philosopher Stone for the past few weeks of searching. Ed thought back to all the sleepless nights that had been wasted.

"This is useless!" Ed wailed. "I bet Colonel Screw-up had something to do with this!"

Al looked up from the book he was flicking through to his older brother, and sighed. "Brother, I know you hate Colonel Mustang, but how could he have anything to do with this? And, besides, the Colonel has done a lot to help over the past few years. You should try and be a bit more respectful. . ."

"Respect? To that bastard! I bet he doesn't even know the meaning of that word, vain-self-serving-bastard-with-a-god-complex!" Ed followed this up by transmuting a RoyDoll with rosy pink cheeks, red painted lips and a tiny miniskirt, and started the task of ripping the doll to shreds.

"You're just looking for someone to blame, brother," Al said wearily, as he attempted to stop Ed from shredding their research notes and the near-by furniture.

"I'm not LOOKING for someone to blame, he IS to blame!" Ed didn't have an answer to how this could be Mustang's fault, but he wasn't going to give Al another chance to point that out, so he kept on ranting ( until he couldn't think of anything else to rant about so he started to shout random words out loud ), until he stopped abruptly as he noticed a book with a very interesting title. Al looked at Ed, surprised at Ed's sudden lack of rantingness, but didn't press it. AN* 'Rantingness' Haha! My sister made that word up, I think that should be classified as 'Ed's Word'. *

'He must have found something that looked promising on the Philosopher's Stone,' Al mused, picking up yet another book.

'Now, this looks interesting,' Ed thought, an evil smile creeping onto his face. 'Very interesting. . .'

The Shrink-Ray is a tool used to decrease the size and mass of the object that it is focused upon, making it easier to transport and handle heavy weights. It is capable of reducing the matter of an object down to 50% of its usual state . . .

The mythological Philosopher Stone is rumoured to be able to greatly increase the power of an alchemic reaction. . . Blah blah blah. Al sighed. This stuff was far too basic, and held nothing that they didn't already knowabout the stone. Placing the book to the side and about to pick up another, Al heard a peculiar sound that would of sent shivers up his spine - if he had one. Al quickly turned to face the new-found danger and saw . . .Ed. Or what he thought was Ed. . . Or what he thought had once been Ed. . .

The thing vaguely resembling his elder brother was standing on top of a table which made him nearly as tall as Al. (Okay, that's impossible, but if you include the elevated boots and the antennae, then I guess it kinda makes sense . . . kinda.) His hands were raised in front of him as if he had grasped the world in his claws and had full power over everyone and everything. His face was distorted into a creepy/evil grin which appeared to stretch across both sides of his face, and his eyes seemed to hold a certain menacing edge to them. And. . . Al looked closer. Were his eyes . . . glowing . . . red? The only thing that Al could think of to describe the sound coming out of his brother's mouth was a guttural cackle. A black mass of energy seemed to encircle his brother's form. Papers flew about the room and pages were ripped out of books. The lights flickered off and on, giving the library a haunted aura. Al noticed that the library had been evacuated, the door creaking open and closed slowly; only partly induced by the panicked mortals who had moments before fled the room.

'I better do something before he rips this place apart,' Al thought rubbing the back of his head and sighing. He walked over to Ed, and put his hand on his brother's arm. When this did not work and Ed continued to laugh maniacally, Al rolled his non-existent eyes. "Brother. You haven't found another book on how to decompose milk, have you?"

The pages slowly fluttered and fell to the floor, the door stopped swinging back and forth, and the lights flickered on and off a few times before returning to normal.

Ed's evil laugh dissipated as his arms were lowered fractionally and his hands relaxed slightly from his rigid stance, before turning his head to face Al. "Oh, hey, Al," Ed said simply. "What's up?" Before waiting for Al to respond, Ed hopped down from the table and walked across the room towards the door (where a brave woman had poked her head through the door, but as she saw Ed, and recognised him as the demon from before, her face turned to one of horror, and she had fearfully fled to somewhere very, very far away.) Ed reached the door before it closed and left the library.

Al rubbed the back of his head.

A few seconds later, Ed's head appeared from behind the library door, eyes scanning the library and passing right over Al as if he wasn't even there. His eyes then focussed on an object somewhere to the left of Al. He studied it scrutinizingly for a few seconds before looking around the room for any unseen threats. Deciding it was safe to enter, Ed cautiously entered the empty-except-for-Al room, and scurried across the room to the object; a leather-bound book.

Al watched as Ed quickly snatched up the book, and held it to his chest possessively, noticing Al and snarling at him in a warning to keep the hell away. His brother then proceeded to back out of the room, watching Al carefully before sprinting the last few meters towards the door and exiting swiftly.

Ed left behind in his wake disaster, chaos, ripped-up books, scattered papers, upturned chairs and a confused Al – but not too confused. He had come to terms with the fact that his brother was just like this.

Staring after Ed at the closed door for a few seconds, Al rubbed the back of his head once more, turning in a slow circle surveying the disaster that once was a 'library'. He then looked back across the room to his chair where he always sat, which had been toppled over. He slowly walked over to it, up righting it, sitting down, and promptly picking up the book in front of him. He would deal with the mess later.

. . . Incredible powers . . . bla bla bla . . . Can take on a liquid form.. .

AN. If you got this far, I am eternally thankful and you truly are amazing and I love you and now I wont shut up because because I'm annoying but also awesome at the same time Please review. I need to know if anyone has enjoyed this story and if I should continue. Critism is also welcomed, thanks.