Ed trudged through the halls, dreading the next assignment his superior was to give him. Al trailed behind, his metal feet clanging against the linoleum. The halls were empty save for Ed and Al, and their footsteps rang out in the building, bouncing off the walls and into the endless space in the hallway. Finally, the two brothers reached the wooden door with the metal nameplate engraved "Colonel Roy Mustang". Ed's eyes drifted down to a spot on the door where a small and hastily-scratched word was written underneath the bolded block letters: Bastard. Ed smiled, admiring his past handiwork (and etching skills).
Al poked his sibling's shoulder, reminding him that Colonel Roy Bastard was waiting. The small blond reached out for the door handle, the metal cold to his touch. It creaked as he turned the handle, the sound reminding him that he could not turn back once he had opened this door.
The Elrics had recently returned from a mission bringing down one the state alchemists' greatest foes: Scar. Though he remained at large, working together, Ed and Al had managed to strike his arm and damage the array tattooed onto it. Now, thanks to the Elric brothers, the military had time to regroup while he healed and redrew his arrays. However, Ed had hoped for some time to relax and bask in the light of his latest victory. Apparently, it had been Roy's bright idea to shatter his dream and send him on another assignment.
He told Al to stay put in the first room while he finished business with Mustang in the Colonel's quieter, more secluded office. Al nodded, turning to Havoc, who was trying to light a smoke. Ed swiveled on his heel to face the door to Mustang's inner office as he marched up to it, staring at it for a moment before kicking the door in.
Mustang didn't bother looking up from his badly-drawn doodle of Black Hayate, simply calling out, "Hello, Fullmetal. It's nice of you to show up." The door slammed closed behind the obnoxious teen, and the steady thump thump of his black rubber-soled boots followed him to the couch, where he flopped down onto the cushions with an irritated sigh.
"Cut the crap already, Colonel." He waved his hand flippantly at the dark-haired man before continuing, "Just give me this damn assignment so I can leave." Roy sighed at his subordinate's impatience and flung a case file to the young alchemist. Ed caught it with ease, flipping it open to the first page and skimming over it quickly.
"Mustang," He began quietly, "Is this a joke?" Roy looked up from his paperwork once more.
"What do you mean?"
Ed raised the file in his hand slowly, glaring at Roy all the while.
"People smuggling cocaine in hollowed out pumpkins? This is the most bullshit case you've ever assigned me to."
"I assure you, Fullmetal, that this is a very real case." He folded his hands and set them on his desk. "And you should probably get going; the next train for Albern leaves in half an hour." Roy smirked at Ed's alarmed expression. Ed jumped to his feet, throwing a glance at Roy before he headed for the door. He paused for a moment, giving Roy the coldest glare he could manage before speaking.
"If I find out that this is some big prank, I swear you won't be able to tell your ass from your elbow." The door slammed closed with a BANG, leaving Mustang wondering how in the world his elbow would end up in his ass.
"Brother, hurry up! The train's leaving!"
"Shut up! I'm going as fast as I can!" Ed ran up to the ticket window and thanked the ticket master with a nod of his head, spinning on his heel and racing after Al. The train had just begun moving as they jumped on, Al already searching for places to sit and Ed following close behind. Once they had gotten settled in their less-than-comfortable seats, Al began leafing through the case file while Ed flicked his pocket watch open and closed over and over, staring out the window.
"Wow," Al remarked after he finished reading the file, "You weren't kidding. This is a weird case."
"Tell me about it." Ed groaned, shoving his watch back into his pocket, folding his hands behind his head and yawning, "Hopefully we can just get this over with quickly." He stifled another yawn, slumping back into his seat and leaning his head against the window.
It only took a few moments for Ed to start dreaming.
The first thing Ed noticed was Al. Or rather, the lack of Al. In the place of where his brother should've been sat a pumpkin of small stature, bright orange in color. Where did he wander off to this time? Ed wondered to himself, grumbling inwardly. But before he could stand up from his wooden seat, a voice called out to him.
"Ed!" Ed looked around, craning his neck to peer around the edge of his bench.
Who is that? "Show yourself, whoever you are!" Ed called back valiantly.
"I'm right in front of you!" The small voice replied. "It's me, Al, for God's sake!" Ed almost gasped, but caught himself. It is common knowledge that Ed does not gasp.
"Al," he warned, "is this some kind of joke? Because if it is… I mean, I know you've been pursuing the art of ventriloquism as of late." But when a chuckle came from the pumpkin before him, he knew that this iconic symbol of October was indeed his brother.
Ed screamed.
He quickly cut the scream off when he realized it was just as silly as gasping, if not more so.
"So… Al," he said awkwardly, straightening his red duster. "How did you… You know… " He gestured to Al's new form, "Become… that?"
"No time to explain." Al responded curtly. It sounded as though Al would begin to say something else, but a shadow fell over them before he could speak.
"It's your turn." The deep voice of Roy Mustang growled. An evil laugh rumbled throughout the train car. Ed shivered.
"What does that mean!?" Ed shrieked. "What do you mean, it's my turn?!" But the only answer he got was a strange tugging sensation in his limbs. He tried to stand up, only to find his legs, as well as his arms, shrinking. "WHAT?!" He screeched. "YOU'RE MAKING ME SMALLER?! HOW DARE YOU!" He lunged at the Colonel, short arms outstretched. Unfortunately, he barely made it an inch before his calves, and then thighs, gave in and he flopped on the floor, unable to move. The last of his fingers melted into his now stubby arms, his skin turning a faded shade of orange. Not more than three seconds had passed before he turned completely orange and his limbs were no more than small stumps protruding from his new, hard shell. He could feel his head rising above the rest of him, and he just assumed his head was now the stem of the pumpkin he was slowly becoming.
Soon, the transformation was complete.
"Now, time for the last stage in my master plan." the Colonel declared in a sing-song voice, reaching down for the pair of Elric pumpkins. He was so big now, towering over them. His movements seemed to happen in slow motion, the folds of his military-issued uniform flapping behind him. In his current size and shape, Ed was terrified of those folds, fearing that he could be swallowed up inside them, never to be seen again.
The setting seemed to morph around the siblings, turning into a flaming kitchen of hell, a burning oven awaiting their arrival.
"We're here!" Roy exclaimed cheerfully, fired up to go. At an agonizingly slow speed, Mustang set the two pumpkin brothers on the top of a large mahogany table in the corner of the room.
Ed quickly analyzed the scene: they sat on the table, surrounded by a ring of fire that plagued the rest of the room. The tops of the stove were ablaze, clearly a mishap with the gas burners. Flames exploded from within the oven, and they scorched the air when Roy opened the door of the fiery metal hell box. The knives hanging from the wall above the stove were melting with the heat of a thousand fires, their molten blades dripping down the white tile walls.
Ed could feel the heat emanating from the stove as Roy walked over, picking them up and carrying them to the the cooker. The paint on Al's metal pumpkin shell began to peel and the metal began to drip as the flames ate away at their hard exteriors. The flames licked away at them, burning them, morphing them into something else entirely. Roy waved as he closed the door to the box, grinning childishly. Ed felt as though no time had passed before a shrill, ear-piercing ding could be heard, and blinding white light flooded into the burning hellhole (more like hellbox, but that was besides the point). Ed closed his eyes (if he had any), expecting to reemerge in the devilish hands of Roy, in the kitchen of hell, but when he felt no fire around him, he opened one eye cautiously, scanning the new scenery around him. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, but when they did, he gasped in sheer horror (it was a very manly gasp, mind you).
It was no longer Roy who held the two pumpkin (well, pumpkin pie) twins in his unforgiving grip.
This time, it was Winry.
The girl put them on a table, leaning down so they were at eye level. Her eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets as she gazed at them carefully, pulling out a toothpick from the pocket of her apron. She stabbed it into Ed quickly, pulling it out after a few moments. Ed squeaked pitifully in surprise, glancing up warily at the girl who was now staring at the toothpick with an unsure look. After a moment, she threw the toothpick aside and looked back down at them. A malicious grin spread across her face, her blue eyes intent with something that reminded Ed of a killer.
This was not the Winry he knew, and it horrified him that she had turned into a monster like this.
"Granny!" she called out, her shrill voice piercing the air and echoing around the Rockbell kitchen, "The pie is ready!" The lumbering footsteps of Pinako were growing louder by the second, announcing her arrival at the scene. The old woman only had to take one look at the pie brothers to know that they were perfect.
"Well then," she rasped, "I think it's time to begin." She raised her arm, a threatening knife glinting in her grasp.
"Brother!" Al shrieked, trying to scoot his way off the table and into safer territory. Ed braced himself for the drop of the knife, but when it fell, he felt nothing.
No pain. He squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the blade slicing through his innards, and yet the pain did not come. Al screamed his name again, and Ed felt a violent shaking. Really? An earthquake in the middle of this? But it was not an earthquake he felt, but: "Earth to Ed! Wake up! I wanna show you something!" Al yelled. Al's voice seemed to be muffled, as if he were hearing his brother's calls through the speaker of a broken telephone.
"Ed!" Al called again."Brother!" Ed kept his eyes shut. Maybe if he waited, Al would stop screaming, and Winry would stop cutting into him, and he would become human again.
He waited. Mere seconds passed and seemed to drag on and on, until the turbulent ground beneath him violently overturned the wooden table he and Al sat upon. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, he was in yet another setting.
Back on the train. He blinked - once, twice, three times, trying to clear the fog that lay over his eyes. When he did, what he saw before him drew a high-pitched scream from his throat.
Al sat in the train bench directly across from the small blond, a pumpkin in place of his metal head. But Ed saw not what was there; Ed saw what he now feared more than anything else. He screamed again, his throat growing sore from the overuse of his vocal cords.
He sprung from his seat and grabbed at the pumpkin that sat upon his brother's shoulders, but missed when he came to realize the fact that the pumpkin was not, in fact, a pumpkin. Instead, it was a photo of a pumpkin in a magazine that Al had been holding up to his face.
"Brother, look what I bought in the newsstand at the front of our train car when you were sleeping! It's a Halloween magazine! It tells me about the pumpkin carving people do for Halloween! Wouldn't it be fun to carve some pumpkins? I'd probably carve a cat or a -" Ed cut him off with another shriek.
"AL! WE ARE NOT CARVING PUMPKINS! WE ARE NOT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH PUMPKINS!"
"But what about the case?" Al inquired. "You can't just leave these people smuggling drugs through pumpkins, a symbol of a children's holiday!" Ed sighed, remembering about the case that, over the course of his dream, had slipped his mind.
Or hadn't slipped his mind, as his dream proved. Subconsciously, the case file and the circumstance of it all had terrified him. He grabbed the magazine from his brother's metal grip, quickly transmuting his automail arm into his classic blade in order to more efficiently shred the article Al had found. In a matter of seconds, strips of paper were fluttering in the air, landing softly on the brown, wooden ground.
"Hey!" Al cried. "I paid for that magazine!" Ed glared at him.
"You might as well have sold your soul to Satan." He stopped to think. "Literally." He added, remembering Roy and his maniacal laugh.
"It was just a Halloween magazine," Al protested. "A harmless holiday, and it was originally to ward away the evil demons, not to summon them."
"And where did you read this incredible bullshit?" Ed asked critically.
"The magazine." Al stated exasperatedly, and maybe just a little matter-of-factly. Ed dismissed the facts with a sarcastic wave of his hand, strutting off their row and out into the aisle.
"We're almost at our stop, Al. We'd better get ready to hop onto the station if we want to book a room at an inn or something." He continued off the train car, Al following behind him.
Ed almost tripped trying to reach the platform from the train. Al chuckled to himself as Ed stumbled; it seemed that the gap between the train and the platform was slightly too wide for Ed to reach his short legs across either side. Ed caught himself just in time, slinging his suitcase over his shoulder and straightening his coat. He glanced around a couple times before heading in the direction of the exit of the station. Al barely had to run to catch up to his older (and much slower) brother. They flew out the door and stepped off the platform; Ed angrily waved off Al's offer to help him down to the dirt ground.
Dust rose from the heels of Ed's boots, as if sparks were flying out from beneath his feet. The grit floated upwards and masked Al's face, only his red eyes glowing through the cloud. He tried to grab it and move it away from his face, but his hand only dropped through the mist.
His face would've conveyed surprise if it could, but it was not because of the reaction his hand had with the dirt. It had by now cleared, anyway.
Ed turned back to face his brother, and he saw that his brother was just as shocked and impressed as he was.
What stood before them was so amazing, even improbable of this little town. The Elrics could not believe their eyes.