OK i'm not sure why I felt the need to write this but for some reason I couldn't get the thought out of my head, and as a result I couldn't update seitreitei on strike, so I wrote this to get the gremlins out of my head and once it was written it seemed like a waste not to publish. If you want more I can write more. If you don't want more there will probably be more anyway, but only when the gremlins get particularly bad (i've decided plot gremlins is a far more accurate term than plot bunnies.)

Anyway this is basically an FMA/Avengers fusion starring Edward Elric as Tony Stark, Alphonse as Jarvis, and Winry as Pepper. Future chapters will likely include, Ling/Greed as the Hulk, Hughes as Coulson, Envy as Loki, and Armstrong as Steve. It will probably get increasingly cracky as it goes on. My work has a tendency to do that, but it's starting out angsty on the basis that all superheroes need an angstybackstoryTM in order to be proper super heroes.

BTW- I own nothing, thus I have no attachments to this world, thus I am enlightened, thus I am one with the universe, thus I am always right, thus no-one can argue with me, thus there is no point in taking me to court as I will undoubtedly win. (that my friends is logic.)

Chapter one- In a cave in Afghanistan

Edward Elric was a disgrace. Everybody told him so. The newspapers told him so, his assistant Winry told him so, even his little brother Alphonse told him so, although Ed could always see the smile Al tried to hide when he was telling him off for yet another indiscretion. Edward Elric was a disgrace, he freely admitted it. He was a womaniser, a party boy, and a menace to polite society, and the last time someone called him short, his teeth had to be forcibly removed from their hat. Still, Edward decided, being a disgrace did not mean he deserved to be in this cave, with two limbs missing, and a bunch of terrorists pointing guns at him and forcing him to build bombs for him. Besides, even if he did deserve some kind of comeuppance for his actions, that was no reason for Alphonse to be dragged in here with him. On the other hand, if Alphonse hadn't been here he would probably be in even worse straits. It was proving to be almost impossible to build complex machinery with only one hand, especially given he couldn't even stand. With Alphonse to act as his hands, and help him with the plans, he at least stood a chance of escape. Edward would have been happy to rot in here forever if it meant Alphonse was safe at home. But Alphonse was here, which meant they had to escape. Two geniuses and a bunch of bomb parts, they had to be able to figure something out right?

"Hey Ed" Al murmured pensively, as they worked, "They've got a lot of Elric weaponry here you know?"

"Yeah. I'm kinda wondering how they got their hands on it. Most of this stuff we only sell to the American military." Ed responded absently.

"I've been thinking a lot lately Ed. Are you sure we're doing the right thing? Our weapons hurt a lot of people. A lot, and I'm not sure we're really keeping our country safe."

"I'll admit it is worrying that terrorists have our weapons. They could hurt a lot of innocent people with these. We'll have to tighten up security when we get back, stop this kind of thing from happening." Ed declared. Al just looked troubled.

"It's not just that Ed. I agree, terrorists having our weapons is bad, but it's more than that. I spoke to this reporter a while before we left and she said some things that troubled me, so I've been doing some research. Do you know how many innocent civilians the American military kills every year?"

"No" Ed replied, surprised at the question.

"Well neither does the American government. No one knows for sure, and most of the estimates I've found are pretty high. Don't you find that disturbing."

"What's your point Al?" Ed didn't like where this conversation was headed. He didn't like the implications of what Al was saying, they skirted too close to the edge of things he didn't want to be true. Then again it was at least distracting him from another fact he really didn't want to be true. The only way the terrorists could have gotten these weapons was if there was a traitor in his company, high up in his company. In other words, someone they trusted. In some ways he was thankful that Al wasn't willing to drop the discussion they were having.

"My point is that if people are using the weapons we created to kill innocent civilians, doesn't that make us responsible. I read one story, the military bombed a wedding, then they bombed the people who went to dig survivors out of the wreckage, then they bombed the memorial service for the victims. They used Elric weapons to do it. We killed those people Ed, we didn't pull the trigger but we killed them."

"No, if we hadn't made the weapons someone else would. Would the brand name on the bomb have made any difference to those peoples deaths? No it wouldn't." Ed was lying, to himself and Al and he wished he could believe the lie.

"You're wrong Ed and you know it. We're good at making weapons, we're the best. Other people might make them if we didn't, but they wouldn't be the same, they wouldn't be as effective." Al's voice dropped to a whisper. "More people die when they use our weapons Ed. You know it's true."

Ed's shoulders slumped in defeat. "So what do you want to do?" He said tiredly.

"We should stop making weapons. We should make things to help people instead of killing them. New power sources, prosthetic limbs, anything, just no more weapons. Please brother." Ed looked away.

"Well this discussion will be a moot point unless we can get out of here, so we should probably get back to work."

Days later as he held his dying brother in his arms he swore that he would make his brother's wish a reality. There would be no more Elric weapons to kill the innocents of the world. Not ever. As he activated the suit to destroy the terrorist that had shot his baby brother he swore that he wouldn't let Al's death be in vain.

Weeks after that, after he had been found wandering in the desert with nothing but his clothes and a leg made of recycled bomb parts, after he'd come home to an empty house with no kind little brother waiting for him, after he'd buried an empty coffin, and refused to cry for the tabloids, he'd finally entered his brothers personal lab and discovered his brother's top secret project. Then he'd cried. His brother wasn't dead, not really. His brother was a genius, and he had saved his soul to a hard drive. Now all Ed had to do was bind it to a body. Once Ed had managed to upload the results of Al's experiments in human consciousness transferal, into the computer systems of his house, he knew his brother had been successful. Had managed to successfully transfer a copy of his own consciousness into a computer program. Of course this version of Al had no memory of the cave in Afghanistan, but aside from that it was totally up to date. He cried, because while his brother was discorporated, was trapped in the computers, couldn't eat, or touch or sleep, at least he was alive. Ed was a genius, he would find a way to return Al's body. Until then he and Al would keep moving forward. Trying to fix the wrongs they had done to the world, trying to fix each other.