With a long-suffering sigh, Roy raked his hand through his hair as his old friend continued to ramble on. He glanced down at the report in front of him and wondered how much of his attention it required. Riza had given that stack to him before Maes had called, which was unfortunate. His subordinate has the tendency to bring him papers that he merely needs to sign without actually reading when his best friend calls. The fact that she hasn't brought him a fresh set of paperwork even though this phone call had now lasted, he glanced at the clock, nearly half an hour; could mean that the items in front of him were low priority.

Or it could mean that she simply doesn't have anything low priority to bring him.

Roy decided he needed to move this along, if he was going to make it out of here in time for his date later.

"Maes, some of us have work to do today. If there's nothing of import, could we-"

"Oh, sorry there, Royboy. You know how excited I get about my dear Gracia! I actually do have something to share!"

Roy was pretty sure he kept this sigh restricted to a mental one before he replied, "Oh, really, and what is this crucial bit of news?"

If it was about Roy's lack of a wife in any way, he was hanging up.

"You got a map handy?"

Roy blinked. Huh. Apparently this was work related, since Maes' attempts to set Roy up rarely involved charting a course. He set aside the stack of forms and pulled over the map he always kept handy. It was the standard issue map of the island country of Amestris, with all the major currents and hazards noted, plus plenty of his own notations in his personal alchemy code. The largest island in the middle was simply called Central, and that was where his friend was currently calling from. Roy was currently on Eastern Island, which merely meant that it was the largest island in the Eastern quadrant, as there were obviously quite a few smaller islands nearby.

"Alright, got it here Maes."

"Right. So, I haven't brought this up before, because frankly it seemed too ridiculous to be anything other than crazy sailor superstitions. But! I've gotten a couple reports from people I trust, and I think there's something here now."

"Go on," Roy encouraged, slightly intrigued now. Maes rattled off half a dozen sets of coordinates, which Roy marked on the map with various bits of whatnot on his desk. They were all in or very near the official Eastern quadrant, though a few did wander slightly into the Southern. "Alright, so what am I looking at?"

"It seems there's a new pirate crew working your neighborhood!"

Roy rolled his eyes, "Piracy isn't exactly my department, Maes."

"These aren't your ordinary pirates, Roy! There are a lot of rumors, but a lot of them stay pretty consistent. If my informants are right, this is a small crew. Most report only two, but I've heard up to five."

"Hardly a threat."

Maes snorted, "That's what I thought at first. But, it get's stranger. The two that are always mentioned are a giant man in a full suit of armor, and a young boy estimated around ten or eleven. Both of which seem to be combat experts and, apparently, alchemists."

Roy sat up straighter and studied the map again, "What?"

There was definitely a smug tone to Maes' voice as he continued, "And, apparently, they have some strange, metal ship that runs on steam power. It outruns everything out there, it seems, and is ridiculously maneuverable. Nothing stands a chance."

"Do we have a name? Home port? Anything?"

"Nothing concrete. But, they're starting to get a reputation. They're being called Fullmetal. Not sure if that's the name of the Captain, the group, or the ship. Heck, I'm not even sure which of them is the Captain."

Roy drummed his fingers over the desk for a minute in thought, "What are they targeting?"

"That's where it gets pretty strange. Some military ships, some civilian. They don't necessarily take anything too valuable. A pretty random list of things really. There was a whole shipment of coal, which makes sense with the steam engine. But, they do take anything written they can get their hands on. Manifests, fiction, charts, one poor cabin boy's journals. Whatever. If it's written down, they take it."

Well, if they were alchemists, that made sense. Almost all alchemy notes are written in code, and some of it is twisted into some pretty innocuous forms. He'd seen chimera research written as an intro to gardening guide before.

"Keep me posted, Maes. I'll see what I can do from this end."

"I thought you'd be interested in this one. You got it, Royboy!"

Edward cackled as they pulled away from their latest target. They'd transmuted the rudder in place at an angle that should take them to the nearest port in a few days, winds permitting, so he wasn't worried about pursuit. And, despite Al's disapproving look, Ed had made sure to seal over the openings on all of their canons, so they were safe now that they were out of range of regular firearms. He switched everything over to autopilot now that they were on course, and hopped down the ladder to where Al was already sorting through their latest haul.

He took shrugged out of his heavy, scarlet coat with wide black cuffs, and more gold braid and black embroidery than was strictly necessary. Hanging the coat on the hook on the back of the door, he stretched his arms over his head, full black sleeves falling from the linked hands covered by black leather gloves. Ed had decided at the very beginning that if they were going to be pirates, he was damn well going to look the part.

"Anything good?"

Al's hollow, echoing sigh was defeated, but his tone was a little hopeful as he answered, "Not yet, but I've only just started."

Ed plopped down on the floor cross-legged and dragged a crate of books and papers closer. He skimmed titles and authors before grabbing the first one to randomly catch his eye.

"Don't worry, Al. We'll find it, and get your body back. It's out there, we just gotta keep lookin'"

Al nodded emphatically, and set aside the stack of invoices he'd just finished into the 'trash' pile. They kept nearly every chart they found, since every Captain tended to have their own secret courses and favored harbors, all of which were often noted on their charts. Every so often, they'd compare their confiscated stack to their master one, moving over any notations that seemed useful, then discarding the extras.

"Hmm, this is interesting, Al."

His brother leaned over to read the paper in Ed's hands. "These are the official orders for that crew. They were on their way to check out some religious cult on an island called Liore, where some whacky priest is said to be pulling fanatics under his wing by performing 'miracles' or something."

The two brothers looked at each other silently for a moment, then back to the paper.

Al pointed to one line, "These don't follow the laws, Big Brother. Do you think . . . ?"

Ed grinned, "Yeah, Al. It could be a stone."

Right. So, not really sure where this came from, but here it is. I don't plan on continuing this, so I didn't really think through all the details, but here are some tidbits:

Technology wise, it's kind of random to make it work. Sue me. Obviously they have inter-island phone calls. However, they still use sailing ships as opposed to any sort of motors. Trains wouldn't be too big a thing, since probably only Central Island would be big enough to really warrant one, Possibly one or two of the other cardinal islands.

Ed and Al did try to bring back their mother, resulting in Al in the armor, and Ed down two limbs. Roy didn't scout them. Instead or joining the military, Ed and Al take up piracy in search of any and all info on the stone. They steal as little as they can from civilians, and not much more from the military. They're not in this for the riches, after all.

Winry not only makes and maintains Ed's automail, but also their ship. The boys actually have a reason to avoid going home too often, because they can't afford to be tracked in that area too often at the risk being caught or causing trouble for the Rockbells.

Eventually they get too well known, and Roy is tasked with bringing them in, resulting in hijinks and shenanigans.

Scar is still out for State Alchemists, and still a lone wolf. He pretty much sticks to attacking on land, and stowing away when he needs to hop islands for a target. He and the Elrics won't have as much conflict in this world. While the boys don't approve of him, of course, they would barely be on his radar since Ed is no longer an Alchemist.

I picture Father as a Pirate King, the homunculi in charge of his fleet. His goals are pretty much the same, really.