"Argh, why did that guy give me milk with this?!" Edward sulked for the umpteenth time, dropping his head to the table. He glared at the glass bottle in front of his face. "I didn't even ask for it!"

"I guess it was complementary," said Alphonse, who was sitting quietly across from his older brother.

"Hmph." Edward picked up the milk bottle with his thumb and index finger and set it in the middle of the table, all the while making a disgusted grimace. He pulled out a map of Amestris from his back pocket, unfolding it and laying it out on the table.

Alphonse looked down at the map. "Should we stop in Dublith to see how Teacher's doing?"

"She'd probably beat us to a pulp again," Edward replied monotonously. "But I don't see why not."

"Um, excuse me."

The two brothers turned to see a girl standing by their table. She looked to be around Edward's age, albeit much taller than him, with braided, golden-blond hair and bright blue eyes. She glanced down at the map. "Can I take a look at that map?" she asked.

"Huh?" Edward looked down at the map, then back at her. "Uh, sure." He picked up the map by the edges and handed it to her.

The girl held the large paper up and examined it closely. After a moment, she smiled and handed the map back to Edward. "Thanks so much."

"You're welcome." Edward, as well as his brother, watched as the girl walked away toward a young woman, who had long black hair and the same eyes as the girl.

"You have the coordinates?" they overheard the woman say.

"Yeah," replied the girl. "Let's head back to base now." She and the woman left the pavilion and walked down the street.

"You catch that, Al?" said Edward.

"Yeah. What do you think she meant by 'coordinates'?"

"I don't know." Edward stood up, shoving the map back into his pocket, and started in the direction the women had gone. "But if it means what I think it does, then we just found our next lead."

Alphonse abandoned his seat and followed his brother. "Where are we going now, brother?"

"We're going to trail them."

Slightly taken aback, the younger brother glanced between Edward and the women about twenty feet from them. He adjusted his pace so that his footsteps were lighter and softer. "O-Okay."

"So how do you think this happened?" the black-haired woman said to the girl walking next to her.

"I dunno," said the girl. "This place looks a lot like Earth, but it isn't home. It's too underdeveloped."

Edward let out a low huff of exasperation at the girl's comment, but continued listening.

"Do you think we were shadow-zoned?" asked the woman, scanning the buildings and the few people around her.

"Not likely. Arisa said that being shadow-zoned was like being in another place but in the same place, like being a ghost. This place––there's nothing here that's familiar. Plus, everybody here can see us."

"That's true. . ."

The girl suddenly stopped walking, causing the woman to stop as well. "Hey, boys!" she called.

Edward and Alphonse froze in their tracks.

The girl turned to face them, a smirk on her face. "I know you're trying to follow us. We could really use some help right now, and we'd be very much obliged if you could fill the part."

Edward gulped nervously, but stood straight and regained his composure. "Yeah?" he said, trying to make his voice sound more confident. "And what's in it for us?"

She shrugged, still smiling. "I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

Edward rolled his eyes, then blinked as his brother hurried to catch up with the pair.

"My name is Alphonse," he said in a friendly tone. "And that's my brother Edward."

The girl beamed up at him. "Nice to meet you, Alphonse. I'm Robyn, and this is Sora."

"So where are you taking us?" said Edward, who had just joined the trio.

"Our 'base'," replied Robyn, lifting up her index finger. "At least, that's what we like to call it––makes it sound more sophisticated than it actually is."

Sora giggled. "But then again, our 'base' is far more sophisticated than most anything in this world. Now offense, boys."

Edward scowled. "None taken," he lied.

"Our 'base' is just outside of town," said Robyn. "We tried to hide it from sight. Don't want anyone trespassing on our ride home."

"Ride home?"

Robyn grinned at him. "Our 'base' is a space ship."

Edward blinked. "A what?"

She laughed. "That's how I expected you to react. I figured out along the way that this world hasn't developed any type of flight technology, so it was kinda obvious you wouldn't really understand." Her grin widened. "You're world really is underdeveloped."

Edward's scowled deepened. "Yeah, well. Do you have auto-mail?"

"Auto-mail," Robyn repeated. "I picked up on that word while we walking through town––this town apparently being the auto-mail Mecca and all. We do have prosthetic limbs back home, but not nearly this advanced. Not just yet, anyway. We should be at that point in a few years, though."

"So that leaves it at Edward, one, and the weirdo space freaks, zero," he remarked.

"Not quite." She smirked. "We get a point for having flight technology, one for portable telephones, one for energy-efficient everything, and a thousand points for the Internet."

"Huh?!"

"What's the Internet?" asked Alphonse.

Robyn made a smile that was a strange mix of amusement and embarrassment. "The Internet is the best––and worst––thing ever created by man. It's often known as the information superhighway. You can get a lot of information from a bunch of different places in it. It's pretty much like an entire library at your fingertips."

"Wow! That sounds amazing!"

She let out a nervous laugh, as if she were ashamed of what she was about to say. "Yeah, well, it gets abused a lot, so now the Internet's become sort of like ancient Egypt. Everybody writes on walls and worships cats."

Sora laughed heartily. "I haven't heard that one! It's so true!"

"I know! That's what makes it funny!"

The two brothers looked at each other, confusion written all over their expressions.

"Anyways," said Robyn, "I think it's best you come with us. We'll have time to talk once we've made it to the base."

"Whoa. . ."

The two brothers stared wide-eyed at the craft before them. It was rounded, almost fifty feet in diameter, and covered in dust and debris from the surrounding desert area. Four large pedes held up the body of the craft, and a ramp was mechanically let down from the base to make an entrance. Out of the entrance came a young man with light brown hair and the same bright blue eyes as Robyn and Sora. He smiled at the pair, but blinked when he saw the brothers behind them.

"Sora, you go ahead and explain to the team about these two," said Robyn. "Have them assembled in the control room in three minutes."

"Yes, ma'am," replied Sora with a slight smile as she entered the ship.

"And don't call me 'ma'am'! It makes me feel old!"

"So, is this the 'space ship', or whatever you called it?" asked Edward as he and the others went inside.

"Yep," said Robyn. "Inside this baby is a control room, two group bedrooms, one solo bedroom for the captain, three bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a sick bay, an oxygen converter room, a water recycling room, an engine room, and, most importantly,"––she smirked––"a very large food pantry."

"Wow," said Alphonse, who looked at the interior of the ship in awe. "That's amazing. Your world must really be well-developed."

Robyn giggled. "Your comment's much appreciated, but most of this ship wasn't built using our Earth-based technology. A majority of the tech came from Cybertron."

Edward blinked. "Cybertron? What's that?"

"I'll tell you once we all get settled in the control room. C'mon."

"I'm Jackie," said the older man with long, graying auburn hair. "I'm the team's medic."

"I'm Brooke," said the young girl with very short dark chocolate-brown hair.

"I'm Russell," said the boy who had found the four outside.

"I'm Michael," said the older boy with black hair.

"I'm Arisa," said the older woman with gold hair sloppily tied back. "But just call me Ari."

"And you already know Sora," said Robyn. "She's my second-in-command."

"So," said Alphonse, leaning slightly forward in his seat, "you're in charge?"

"Mm-hm." She grinned at the boy and his brother. "I'm Four-Star General Robyn Carter."

"Wait. How old are you?"

"Seventeen." She propped a foot on her knee. "My mom was the general before me. She was given the title when she was my age. She died of cancer four years ago, and I inherited it." She leaned back in her seat. "I became general of the entire technorganic army when I was just thirteen years old."

"Technorganic?" Edward repeated. "What's that?"

Robyn looked at him, then let out a sigh. "Alright, Edward. I'll make a deal with you. I'll tell you everything you want to know, and you tell me everything I need to know. And you have to help us until we find a way to get back home."

Edward flinched, his lips pursed slightly. He was silent, looking at Robyn, then the team gathered, then Alphonse, then back at Robyn. After a long moment, he sighed. "Fine. So long as nothing I say leaves this room."

"You don't have to worry about that," she replied. "We're exceptionally good at keeping secrets." She looked down at him. "And you have to swear that you won't talk about us to anyone either."

"Alright." He paused, then began, "I'm guessing your world doesn't use alchemy, so I suppose I'll start with that. Alchemy is the science of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter. The first law of alchemy is equivalent exchange: To obtain, something of equal value must be lost or given. My brother and I have studied alchemy since we were little.

"When I was ten and Al was nine, our mom passed away. We went away for a while to be taught by an alchemist who didn't have to use a transmutation circle, which is what's required to perform alchemic reactions. We came home a few months later, and we. . ." His voice trailed off.

Robyn sat up slowly. "You what?"

He kept his eyes downcast, and responded hesitantly, "We committed the taboo of human transmutation."

Robyn's brows furrowed. "I take it that's forbidden among alchemists." She paused. "You. . .were trying to bring back your mom, weren't you?"

"We––" started Alphonse. "We just. . .wanted to see our mom's smile again. . . So we did it. But what we created. . .wasn't even human. . ." He lowered his head, looking down at his balled fists resting on his knees. "As the 'toll', Ed lost his left leg, and I lost my entire body. Then brother gave up his right arm to transmute my soul to a suit of armor in the room."

"I was outfitted with auto-mail limbs by some family friends, and the surgery and recovery took about a year," said Edward. "I got my certification as a State Alchemist––an alchemist who works for the military––when I was twelve, and we left our hometown to find a way to get our original bodies back." He waited for a response. When he got none, he said, "And that's about it." He smirked a bit. "So what's your story?"

Robyn was quiet for a while, her arms and legs crossed so she looked far more authoritative than she had moments before. Her expression was stern and unreadable, and she spoke with a matching tone. "The word 'technorganic' refers to our body composition. For example, half of me is human, and the other half is not. My other half is robotic––you could basically say I'm a cyborg."

Both brothers let out hushed gasps, causing Robyn to grin in amusement.

"The robotic part of us is from a race of autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron." A pause for effect. "The race was split into two factions when a civil war broke out: Autobots, the good guys, and Decepticons, the bad guys. The war ended twenty years ago, and the Decepticon faction was dissolved, but there are still some rogue 'Cons that are no doubt trying to recruit." She leaned back in her seat. "My job is to guard Earth from Decepticon technorganics."

"So then, why are you here?" asked Alphonse.

Robyn pursed her lips. "We wound up here after a ground bridge failure."

"A ground bridge?"

"To put it simply, it's pretty much a form of teleportation. A space bridge is used to transport across certain areas of space, while a ground bridge only transports globally. Now,"––she held out her hand––"may I see your map again?"

Edward reluctantly pulled out his map again and handed it to Robyn, who then stood up and walked toward a slab a few feet away. She tapped a few keys, and up on the main screen popped an image of an even larger map. Robyn held up the Amestris map, alternating glances between the two for a moment. Then, "Michael. Take a look at this."

Michael stepped up next to her and did the same. He tapped a key, which caused the larger map to zoom in on a certain region. "There. See it?"

"Yeah. . ."

"Hey," said Edward. "What is it?"

"Our maps are too alike," said Robyn, still focused on the maps. "It looks like our worlds are the same."

He furrowed his brows in confusion. "What?"

Robyn handed the Amestris map to Michael and turned back to face Edward, his brother, and her team. "The ground bridge failure was the result of two ground bridge portals feeding back on each other. We were definitely shadow-zoned."

"That's not possible," Arisa interjected. "When I was shadow-zoned, I was still in our world––just like a ghost. How are we––"

Brooke let out a gasp. "Because there was something in between the two portals!"

"Exactly." Robyn crossed her arms. "I couldn't get a good look at it. You remember what it looked like?"

She nodded, and grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper from a nearby drawer. She leaned on a counter as she began to draw out a figure. After about a minute, she looked at the group and said, "Finished." She held up the paper.

Edward and Alphonse's eyes widened. "Brother," muttered Alphonse. "That's––"

"A transmutation circle."