AHA ANOTHER CROSSOVER! WOOHOO! XD Yeah, so, this is me doing another crossover, and it's based on the manga, but to make things interesting, I decided to base it off of my story I'm Sorry. Just for the drama P
And I'M VERY, VERY SORRY if the Numb3rs people seem OOC, because I've been lacking cable for almost a year now and the only episode of Numb3rs I have is Sniper Zero. And on that note, the setting is in the first season of Numb3rs and don't forget, this is from the Fullmetal Alchemist MANGA. I've noticed that if I don't clarify that some people forget/don't realize that the manga is completely different from the anime, so for those of you who know more about the manga (which is WAY better) then you didn't really need to read this. HA I WASTED YOUR TIME!
Um… on to the story.
----------------
It was a busy day at the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles. The phones rang constantly as the various agents were trying their best to investigate the most recent string of murders in the city. The only worthwhile call included a vague witness description of the murderer, the best lead they had gotten since the first death.
Don Eppes thought about the description as he drove to the scene of the latest crime. A male with blonde hair and blue eyes, around five feet two inches, wearing red and black clothing. He killed his victims by strangling them, but only after taking away any dignity they had. The latest woman he had killed had been found washed up on the beach.
He got out of the car and walked to the roped off section of the beach. He ducked under the yellow tape and looked at the woman. She had brown hair, a characteristic she shared with the rest of the victims.
He looked out at the ocean, hoping to see a boat that the woman could have been pushed off of. Instead he saw something completely different, but just as interesting. Something red was underwater about thirty yards away from where they stood. He gestured to one of his coworkers and ran over to investigate. What they found there was so strange that it couldn't have been a coincidence.
Don ran into the water and grabbed the boy's left arm, dragging him out of the water. He quickly checked to see if there was a pulse. There was, but it was very weak. Don pulled out his phone and called for medical assistance as his buddy performed CPR. Once the boy was breathing again, Don noticed a very strange look on his coworker's face.
"Something wrong?"
"Look at this," the man replied, pulling off the boy's red coat to reveal a metal hand. A quick check showed that the metal went all the way to the boy's shoulder.
"What is this?" Don asked.
"Looks like a prosthetic, but I've never heard of anyone having a completely metal arm like this one."
They stopped their conversation as the boy coughed up not just saltwater, but a large amount of blood. Don checked the boy's pulse again. It was still weak. He stood up and looked impatiently at the nearby parking lot.
"That ambulance had better arrive soon, otherwise we're going to lose the only suspect we have."
---------------------
The EMTs did their jobs quickly, getting the boy to a somewhat stable condition within minutes of arriving. All of them were as surprised as Don was about the boy's body. Not only were his arm and leg metal prosthetics, but several of his ribs had been broken, and one of the broken bones had torn something in the boy's chest, causing internal bleeding. They managed to stop the blood loss by performing some emergency surgery on the boy at the hospital, but he was unconscious, and they guessed he would be for several days.
Don came in the second day after finding the boy. He entered the boy's room and saw a doctor doing some tests on the boy. The doctor noticed him and straightened.
"How's he doing?" Don asked, gesturing to the boy, whose face was covered by an oxygen mask.
"He's probably going to be like this for a day or two more than what I originally told you. As for your case, I don't think you can count him as a suspect."
Don nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right, but we can't be sure. Is there anything other than his arm and leg that shows that he isn't the killer?"
"Yes, there is. His eyes are a different color from that of the killer, and the various wounds on his body couldn't have been self-inflicted. Not even jumping or being pushed off a boat could cause these."
"So what, someone attacked him?"
"Yes."
Don looked at the boy again. "So you're saying that this kid's too weak to be the killer?"
"That's right."
Don shrugged. "For this kid's sake, I hope you're right." He took a final look at the almost peaceful face and left.
----------------
He came back three days later with Terry. According to the doctor, the boy was due to wake up at any time, and Don wanted to be there when he did. He sat in the boy's room for a while, carefully observing the boy whose facial expressions had shifted from peaceful to troubled in his sleep.
When he was about ready to take a break, Don saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He stood up and watched as the boy weakly opened his eyes. Don observed as the golden eyes inspected the room. The boy seemed rather confused.
After a while, the eyes rested on Don. The FBI agent could tell that the boy wanted to ask a lot of questions, but giving the kid too much information at once wasn't the best idea.
Just then, the doctor came into the room and saw that the boy was awake. Don took a step back as the doctor moved forward to do his duties.
"So you're awake. How are you feeling?" the doctor asked.
The boy closed his eyes again and let out a very quiet moan. That certainly answered the doctor's question.
"Don't push yourself right now. You're lucky to be alive," the doctor continued as he checked up on the boy and pulled off the oxygen mask. "Can you speak?"
"Yeah," the boy whispered.
"What's your name?"
"Ed… Edward Elric."
"All right, Edward, just relax for a while, okay? And try not to move. If you do it'll be very painful."
Edward nodded and looked at Don. Don knew in that instant that Edward wasn't a killer. He looked at the doctor, who nodded. Then he moved so that he was closer to Edward's face. "Hey, I'm Special Agent Don Eppes from the FBI, and this is Special Agent Terry Lake. We have some questions for you, but we can wait until we find your parents and notify them that you're here."
Edward shook his head. Don looked with confusion at the kid for a couple minutes before reacting. "You don't want us to contact your parents?"
Edward shook his head again. "I don't… I don't have parents."
Don paused for a moment before reacting. "Oh, sorry. Is there someone who acts as your guardian?"
"No, not really."
Don was confused for a moment before he realized that talking to a kid just after he woke up wasn't the best idea. He turned to the door and began to walk out. "I'll be back in a couple of days, okay?"
The boy just watched silently as Don and Terry left the room.
"So, what do you think?" Terry asked.
Don looked back at Edward's room. "I think this is getting complicated."
"How so?"
"Well, we've got a kid who was found very close to the latest victim. His physical characteristics match the description we got almost perfectly except for his arm and leg-"
"And his eyes, but then again, the suspect could have been wearing contacts."
"Right. And when he shows up and we take him to the hospital, the murders stop."
"So you think this is our guy?"
Don opened the front door of his car and sat in the driver's seat. "I do, but at the same time I don't. According to our witness, the killer doesn't have any prosthetic limbs or anything unusual about his body like this kid does. And besides, if he really had killed those women, wouldn't he have had a different reaction when he found out who we were?"
"Yeah, I guess he would have, although he did just wake up."
"Yeah, and we know his name now, so we can get to work on finding out just who he is."
"I've never heard of any Elrics before, though."
Don closed the door and started the car. "Well, if it's not a common last name, we'll have an easier time finding any relatives this kid has."
---------------
Charlie heard a door slam and decided that his brother was paying a visit. He pulled out the papers he had been working on for Don and walked over to the front entrance to see how his brother was doing.
"Hey, Don, what's up?" he asked casually.
Don took off his coat with a deep sigh. "This case is driving me insane. I've been trying to find this kid's family but…"
"But what?"
"This kid definitely doesn't live in LA. Or anywhere within a hundred miles of here. We looked for medical records, school records, everything. We can't find anything in the area."
"Then where's he from?"
"I don't know. We're going to try a larger search, but it'll probably take a while. I'm going to talk to him today and see if he can tell us where he's from. I just came by to see how you're doing with that equation."
"I'm working on it. It's pretty close now."
Don got a water bottle and took a drink from it. "Great, thanks, Charlie."
"Yeah, no problem," Charlie replied as Don went back to the door. Don was almost outside before he turned back.
"Before I forget, have you ever heard of something called automail? I guess that's what Edward's calling his arm and leg."
"No, I haven't ever heard of something like that."
"Okay, thanks."
Charlie thought about it for a moment. "Maybe he's part of an experiment or something."
"No, if he were we wouldn't have custody over him, unless it's a secret organization, and even then, they wouldn't have let him go that easily."
"Yeah, I was just throwing it out there."
Don nodded and closed the door. Charlie watched as Don walked to his car and drove off.
-----------------
Before going into Ed's room, Don stopped to talk with the doctor in charge of the mysterious boy. The report the doctor gave was a positive one.
"He's recovering more quickly than I thought he would. He sleeps more than what I would consider normal for a boy his age, but considering his injuries, it's not a bad thing."
"Has he said anything about where he came from?"
"No, but I haven't asked him. I thought it would be better if he healed some before answering those kinds of questions."
"Is he awake right now?"
"Yes, you can talk to him if you want."
Don was about to enter the room when the doctor got his attention. "Before you talk to him, I thought I should warn you. He's a little… jumpy when it comes to technology. I've had to explain how just about everything in his room works. Even the TV."
"The TV? Why would he ask about that?"
The doctor shrugged. "He said he'd never seen one before."
Don opened the door. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see what's up." He entered the room and looked at the bed. Edward was sitting on it with his legs crossed. He was examining his right hand. Don sat down next to the teenager and looked at his hand.
"Something wrong?"
Ed looked up at Don and let go of his hand. "Not really, it's just not working as well as it usually does."
"That's probably because you were underwater for who knows how long."
"Yeah, probably."
Don pulled out a notebook and a pen. "Is it all right if I call you Ed?"
"Yeah, that's fine with me."
"Okay, Ed, I have some questions for you."
"Okay."
Don started with the most important questions, the ones that connected Ed to the case he'd been working on. "All right, first question. Have you seen any of these women?" he asked, holding out a page of photos to Ed. Ed looked at the page for a while before handing the paper back to Don.
"No, none of them look familiar."
"Okay, then. How did you end up in the ocean?"
Ed thought about it for a while. "That's where you found me, right?"
"Yeah, you were drifting in on the tide."
Ed frowned. Don could tell he was thinking hard about it. After a while, he shook his head. "I don't remember."
"You don't remember anything?"
"No. The last thing I remember before waking up was riding a train with my little brother, and then everything after that is hazy. I don't even remember being anywhere near the ocean."
"So you don't remember how you got injured?"
Ed shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know."
"Don't worry about it. If you don't remember, then you don't remember. All right, can you tell me where you're from?"
"Like my hometown?"
"Yeah."
Ed nodded. "Resembool."
"Where's that?"
"It's a really small town in the east, kind of near East City, and… what?"
"East City?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, next question. Are you from America?"
"America?"
"Yeah, this country, the United States of America? USA?"
Ed still seemed confused, but he simply shook his head. "No, I'm from Amestris."
"Is that a country?"
"What? Yeah, of course it is. You haven't heard of it?"
Don looked at the boy for another minute. "No, I haven't. Um, I'll be right back."
Don left Ed in his room for a moment while he went to talk to the doctor. Something was wrong with the situation.
He found the doctor talking to a woman at the front desk. He turned when he saw Don standing next to him.
"Is something wrong?" he asked with concern.
"I think there might be. If someone speaks perfect English but they've never heard of America and claim to be from a country that doesn't exist, and you know he's not trying to lie, what would you say?"
"I'd say you need to get him to a psychologist. I didn't see any signs of head injury when you brought him in, but there's a very good chance he's suffering from some kind of trauma."
Don nodded. "Is there someone you'd recommend?"
The doctor nodded. "I know one who's pretty good with cases like this." The doctor went behind the counter and began looking something up. After a while, he gave Don a card. "As soon as Edward is ready to leave the hospital, you should take him there."
Don took the card and thanked the doctor before going back into Ed's room. Ed was staring at the ceiling, a blank look on his face. Don sat back down next to Ed and went back to asking questions.
"Okay, we'll go back to that issue later. For now, can you just tell me more about your family?"
"My family? What do you want to know?"
"Just… anything that'll help us find them so you don't have to stay in FBI custody."
"FBI?"
"Yeah, the Federal Bureau of Investigations. We're… like policemen, but we deal with bigger cases."
Ed nodded. "I get it. Well, like I said earlier, I don't have much family left other than my brother Alphonse. Our mom died when we were very young, and our dad left a while before that. We haven't heard from him since."
"What's your father's name?"
"Von Hohenheim. My last name comes from my mother, Trisha Elric. There isn't much other than that."
"Is there anything that can help us in finding your father?"
Ed scowled. "I don't see why you'd want to find him, but if you want to know…"
"What, do you not like him?"
"No, not after he ditched us like that. I doubt he wants anything to do with his family anymore."
"So… I take it you'd rather not have him be your guardian?"
"No. My brother and I have been on our own for about four years now. Before that, it was our friend's grandmother who took care of us."
"Why isn't she taking care of you anymore?"
Ed shrugged. "We've been traveling too much to really need her help. Besides, I work for the military of my country, so that's how I live now."
"Wait a minute. Your military lets fifteen-year-olds join?"
"Actually, I was twelve when I started."
"Twelve? Isn't that against child labor laws?"
Ed shrugged. "I guess not. Besides, I'm not a normal soldier. I work as an alchemist."
Don made up his mind at that moment. The kid was definitely not sane. He decided to play along. "Alchemy, huh?"
Ed nodded. "I'm guessing you don't know any alchemists?"
"No, can't say that I do. In fact, nobody around here does. It's been given up as something that's impossible to do."
"Impossible?"
"Yeah. I'm guessing you can use it, right?"
Ed nodded. "I can show you if you want."
Don didn't know what to say. He decided to humor Ed. "Okay, let's see it."
Ed looked at the door before bringing his hands together and placing them on the bed. That's when Don got the biggest surprise of his life. Something was forming underneath Ed's hands. There was a flash of light, and when Ed lifted his hands, Don saw a small cloth horse sticking out of the bed. Then he saw Ed smirking.
"Okay, there's about five million things I could say to completely deny the existence of what just happened, but I don't think I'll be able to believe any of them," Don said after a while of staring numbly at the horse.
"What do you mean by that?" Ed asked.
Don shook his head. "Listen, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you can do this. Don't show anyone. If anyone finds out about this, then there's a good chance that some secret branch of the government will come after you and make it so that you'll never have any freedom again."
"What, is alchemy really that bad?"
"Not bad, it's just something that a lot of people will want to use."
"I get it. I won't use it."
"Okay, good." Something told Don that his previous thoughts on the boy were off and that Ed was telling the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that. Besides, he'd already talked with the doctor about this, so if he didn't follow through with his previous plan, he would have troubles later.
---------------
Ah, yes, fanfic. Some more notes: I realize that some things might seem like plotholes, but I did do research, and like I said before, I only have Sniper Zero to watch and uh… Yeah, I don't really have much time to spend on the research end of things, so if there's something that's blatantly wrong, just tell me via PM or something and I'll fix it. )
Oh yes, I did research (in other words typed into Dogpile white pages) the name Elric, and it ain't in the US. There are other spellings of it, but not the one we all know and love, so I think we're safe. And besides, there aren't any Trisha Elrics out there…
