Tolly: Here's the sequel to Blackpowder. It takes place fifteen years after the end of Blackpowder, and features Anna's daughter and niece, along with characters from Swordsman of Fire's Elemental Alchemist (and its sequel!)…It's a collaborative storyline, and you should probably read all four stories involved.

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Robin O'Reilly elbowed her way through the crowd at Central Station, heading towards the sound of a cooling steam engine. Eagerly, she listened for thick-soled boots and a light female step.

Without warning, she was grabbed around the waist from behind and heard her cousin Emma's giggle. "Gotcha!"

"Don't do that!" cried Robin, laughing as well.

"It's nice to see you again, cuz," said Emma, letting Robin go and sitting on the ground to put her boots on; she had snuck up on Robin in only her stocking feet. "See being a figure of speech, of course."

"But of course," said Robin. Having been blind her whole life, she was used to ignoring the many commonly used phrases involving sight. "So how's everyone doing?"

"The whole clan is fine. When I left, Little John was recruiting our uncles to help him make the doorways higher," reported Emma, referring to her six-and-a-half foot tall older brother. He was only called Little John because he was the youngest in the family with the name Jonathan Johnson.

"Couldn't you have used alchemy to do it for him?" Robin asked. "I know you're just as good at it as I am."

"I'm the only alchemist in the whole house! I can't do everyone's work for them."

Robin laughed. "Don't worry. While you're here, you won't have to do anyone's alchemy but your own."

"Sounds great!" said Emma, standing up again. "Let's go to your house right now!"

"But what about your luggage?"

"It's already with me."

"What?" Robin ran her cane over and around Emma, and found no luggage whatsoever. "What are you talking about?"

"Uncle Iggy said that no teenage girl could live for a week without taking anything with her. So I bet him 50 sens that I could do it," Emma explained. "All I've got are the clothes I have on, my alchemy, and my luck!"

If Robin could see, she would have stared at her cousin, but as it was, she merely shook her head and sighed. "That gambling will get you into trouble someday…"

"I've been gambling since the day I was born and it hasn't let me down yet," said Emma, putting an arm around Robin's shoulders. "Let's go!"

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"Today, you get to play with bombs," Robin's mother Anna was saying when the two girls entered the house. She was just starting her daily lesson with a teenage boy named Aidan Wallace. "The first step of normal alchemy is analysis, right?"

Aidan nodded.

"So, the first step of bomb-making is also analysis. You need to know how a bomb works before you can make one." Anna explained. She waved at Emma before continuing. "It's easy to set off a bomb, but harder to understand one."

"Who was that kid?" asked Emma as Robin led her upstairs.

"Aidan? Oh, he's Brand and Katherine Wallace's son. You probably know them—the Elemental Alchemist and the Lightning Alchemist. Mom's helping him advance his pyro-alchemy and combustion skills. He's also learning from both his parents and Fuhrer Mustang," said Robin. She tilted her head to one side. "I wouldn't step there if I were you. That board is booby-trapped."

Emma stepped carefully around the board that Robin touched lightly with her cane. "Wait, you knew where I was going to step? That's just creepy."

Robin smirked and opened the door to her room. "I can tell where you are by listening, and by feeling the vibrations in the floor. The trap under that board makes a little clicking sound, so I know where that is, too."

"Like I said, creepy," said Emma, flopping down on the bed. Robin's room was just as messy and cluttered as any teenager's, despite her being blind. The only things that were out of the ordinary were the various explosives she learned to make from her mother and the transmutation circles she had carved into her floor.

"I have to get around somehow," said Robin, sitting down beside Emma. "It's better than being helpless and having to have someone lead me wherever I need to go."

"Pfft, I've seen you pull your poor little blind girl act!"

"Yeah, too bad that only works on strangers. Otherwise, I'd have everyone wrapped around my finger," said Robin, sighing melodramatically. "Hey, you want me to show you around HQ? My dad's down there right now, and if you want, you can use the shooting range."

"Can I?" asked Emma eagerly, sitting up. She had recently begun learning how to shoot, and was enjoying it greatly. "Mom took my pistols away from me last month, and I don't want to get out of practice."

Robin and Emma raced back downstairs, only to run straight into Anna, who was carrying an extremely large and complicated-looking time bomb. "Careful!" said Anna with a smile. "You wouldn't want to set this thing off."

"Sorry, Aunty Anna," said Emma.

Robin's hands flickered gently over the bomb's surface. "Have fun defusing this one, Aidan, and don't mess up!" she said. Anna set the bomb on the table in front of the boy, who inspected it carefully.

"You've only set the timer for ten seconds, Mrs. O'Reilly," he pointed out.

"Oh, did I?" Anna pushed a button and it started to tick. "You'd better get started then."

As Aidan began frantically trying to defuse the massive bomb, Robin pulled Emma out the door.

"Don't worry," she said as they headed toward the military headquarters. "That bomb seems impressive, but all it does is make a lot of smoke."

"Hmm, sounds like Grandpa's cooking…"

Presently, the girls arrived at HQ. They went up to the front door, only to be bumped out of the way as the door was flung open.

"What the hell?!" exclaimed Emma. She watched in astonishment as the person who had opened the doors, a barefooted girl no older than herself, ran across the courtyard, pursued by a pack of armed soldiers. The girl ignored the bullets whizzing past her and took two patches of cloth out of her pocket as she ran.

Holding a piece of cloth in each hand, she turned around and zigzagged back to the soldiers, grabbing one of them. She quickly twisted his arms behind his back and used him as a human shield. There was a flash of alchemical light, and suddenly the girl's hands were clamped over his mouth. Another flash and she covered his eyes, before being grabbed by two other soldiers.

She fought back with more strength than Emma expected, managing to get the soldiers' arms tangled as she twisted around trying to escape. Suddenly, she used alchemy again and the soldiers lost their grip on her.

Before anyone else could react, the barefooted girl bolted away and vanished into the city.

Emma turned to ask her cousin what the hell had just happened, but Robin was already hurrying towards the cluster of soldiers that remained in the courtyard. Emma ran and joined her. When she saw the three soldiers that the girl had made contact with, she felt sick.

The first man was unable to open his eyes or mouth, his skin having been fused shut over them. When his comrades turned him on his side to see his hands, they saw that his fingers were melted together, binding his hands more effectively than any chain. Though his mouth was gone, he could still manage a muffled scream.

The other two were staring at themselves in terrified shock. For where their arms had touched—for a mere instant!—they had become merged, joined to each other at the arm.

As the injured soldiers were taken to the infirmary, Emma explained to Robin what she had seen. "Who was that girl?" she demanded.

"It was her again…" said Robin softly.

"Who?"

"The Dual Spirit."

Emma was getting impatient. "Which means what, exactly?"

"We don't know," said Robin, shaking her head. "That's what she calls herself. The military has been trying to keep it quiet, but she turned up about a month ago. She's managed to break into HQ at least five times already, and she attacks any member of the military she sees. She even knows some officers, and alchemists, by name, but we don't know anything about her."

"That thing she did--her alchemy--what was that?"

"As far as we can tell, it's the same sort of anatomical fusion used to create chimeras, except the Dual Spirit only combines parts of her victims' bodies."

"So she's a teenage terrorist who knows how to use human transmutation to her own advantage?" Emma sighed and leaned against Robin. "Looks like I picked a bad time to come for a visit."

"Oh, don't say that. It's as good a time as any; we just have to be more careful than usual, that's all," said Robin. "C'mon, let's go inside and see if we can find my dad."

After a few steps toward the building again, Robin added, "Um, I think there's something stuck to your boot, Emma. A piece of paper, maybe?"

Picking up the paper, Emma scanned it quickly. "It's the cover for a report, something about the Golden Touch Alchemist, Peter Derran…why does that name sound familiar?"

"He was our parents' cousin, on Grandma's side. He died six years ago in an alchemy accident. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but we believe that his daughter Sophie, who was very sick, had died and he was trying to bring her back to life."

"Oh, yeah! I remember that. Sophie was our age, wasn't she?"

Robin nodded. "This report must be what Dual Spirit broke in to steal today."

"Hang on a sec," said Emma. "Peter Derran died in an accident involving human transmutation, and six years later, Dual Spirit shows up, and she uses human transmutation as an attack. Not only that, but she stole the file about Peter."

"Maybe she's trying to find out more about her style of alchemy," Robin suggested.

"And Dual Spirit just so happens to be about the same age that Sophie would have been if she had survived. Coincidence? I think not!"

"Are you trying to say that Sophie is Dual Spirit? That's impossible! Sophie's body was found right next to her father's. I can take you to the cemetery where they're both buried."

"I'm telling you, Robin, there has to be a connection!" said Emma. "Can we at least try to find out a little more about this case?"

"Well, the military could use any help they can get…"

"Great! Let's go find your dad."

Without another word, Emma grabbed Robin and marched her into HQ.

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Tolly: There you go, first chapter!