As the two girls Katsuma and Raven walked through the platform in central station, they talked about what they thought would happen to their lives after they passed the alchemy exam.
"We are so ready for this," Katsuma stated. She was always the strong one in body and in word. She was also the witty one; Raven had the actual smarts, however. She had hazel eyes that changed colors according to the light, and her hair was a reddish brown that had a bit of white blonde in the front and stopped at her shoulder blades. She was wearing a black ribbed tank top and baggy tan pants that had cargo pockets on either side on the thigh area. She had on thick black, steel-toed boots, and last but not least had on a long navy blue trench coat that stopped around her knees. The only thing that you couldn't see was the strong armor that covered her shins and the tops of her arms. Standing at five foot five inches, she was rather intimidating. She was also an auto-mail engineer but she only had one client at the time, the one that was beside her and had been ever since the person got their auto-mail arm.
Raven looked down at her right hand and pulled her black fingerless glove off… you could see the auto-mail's powerful steel shimmering under the false skin that went up her arm. The seam for the skin was underneath the glove in order to hide it. She gently pulled at the skin and saw the black wolf paw engraving that she and Katsuma shared on the top of their right hands. She was about five foot three and a quarter inches. Raven had the oddest eyes; they were a bright emerald green… they were called 'magical' or 'all seeing wise eyes.' And to tell you the truth they were. She was always the wise one and always saw things eternally; she also was very good at healing and consoling people. She had deep brown auburn hair with golden strands mixed in. She had on a navy ribbed tank top, and shorts with a long piece of purple and maroon fabric that she had tied around to make it look like a skirt. She had a khaki trench coat that went all the way down to her ankles.
Raven looked up at the huge green banner with the dragon and the hexagon hanging from a white building, and moved her skin back together, putting the glove back over it and saying,
"Yes… yes we are," she said as hope filled her eyes.
Flashback
Katsuma was 13 and Raven was twelve at the time, they were not sisters but they had promised to stick together forever…
Raven and Katsuma were both walking down the road talking about what they had found out about alchemy at the library earlier that day…
"Hey did you see that part about breaking down random substances?" Asked Katsuma
"Yeah it was really interesting," added Raven.
Boom!
They saw a huge explosion that threw them against a tree. They both held the back of their heads and winced at the pain.
"What the hell was that?" yelled Raven trying to make herself heard over the noise
"I don't know but it couldn't hurt to find out" Katsuma coughed.
"Quite the contrary…" mumbled Raven
They darted through the trees, following the noise, until they came across a clearing where two men were fighting. A man that had glasses and a military outfit was throwing daggers at his opponent and was the one that was trying to defend himself. The other was a demonic looking man that had alchemic symbols on the palms of his hands with the shapes of the moon and an oddly shaped sun.
Katsuma and Raven looked at each other, nodded, and prepared for their transmutations.
"Heh. Here we go. One, two, three!" said Katsuma. Once she said three, she and Raven both split up and went to certain areas in the clearing, Raven near the man in the glasses and Katsuma to center stage. Ever since Raven had lost her arm in an accident, she was able to transmute without the transmutation circle. Katsuma, however, still relied on circles. As Raven made a long glistening black scythe from the earth beneath her, the light temporarily distracted the combatants. She went into a defensive stance for battle. Katsuma quickly drew a circle and transmuted a sword of gleaming red iron and a simple metal hilt. She chose the offensive position and advanced toward the man with the alchemy symbols on his hands. He smirked but Katsuma had the upper hand. Katsuma swung the sword heavily, striking the ground and causing an explosion that sent the man flying backwards into a tree. He got on his feet again and stumbled out of the clearing and into the concealing trees.
Raven then faced the man from the military. He had a gash across his chest that was bleeding heavily. She hurried over to him and knelt down, setting her scythe down next to her.
"Are you ok?" Raven questioned worriedly.
"Uhh… Who are you girls I've never seen anyone of your age do alchemy like that before."
She noticed his shallow breathing and placed her hands on his wound, he winced but didn't complain. She knew she could not heal the wound, so she decided to numb it by cooling it down. She condensed the air around the wound, and then froze it. She gently removed her blood soaked hands from the man's chest. Katsuma walked beside her.
"I'm Katsuma and that's Raven" stated Katsuma "What, may I ask is your name?"
He looked down at his frozen wound. The pain had completely disappeared. He looked back up, smiled and said
"Hughes, Maes Hughes."
Raven and Katsuma looked at each other before knocking on the tall oak door in front of them. The name "Maes Hughes" was engraved on a gold-leaf plaque placed on the door. But before they could get to the doorknob, the door swung open and Maes stepped out and exclaimed,
"Hello! Is there yet another person here to see my beautiful Alicia today!" he piped with a cheerful grin. He looked down and saw the two girls whom he hadn't seen in two years, "Katsuma? Raven? Is it really you?"
"Hey Hughes" Raven smiled "How's it been?"
"We came to ask you a few questions," added Katsuma.
Hughes laughed and whined, "Great! Now I'm the one that gets questioned? Come on in, you two." He walked back into the office, took a seat and gestured for them to sit down. They walked in and examined the room. Spanning over the entire wall were pictures of a little girl while the floor was littered with paperwork.
"Been a bit busy, lately?" Katsuma pondered aloud.
"Yeah, it looks like we have a mad man on the loose…" he was completely serious, both of the girls could tell. "Sooo what have you girls come to ask me about?"
"Uh… we want to take the alchemy exam…?" Katsuma said with concern in her eyes
"And why are you asking me?" Hughes asked raising an eyebrow with confusion. Raven answered,
"We have to have done something to catch the furor's attention, right? We were wondering if you could tell him about that day two years ago…"
"I see… well I'll have to think on it…. hey, if you guys need a place to stay I'll be done in a few minutes, then we could head over to my place. I could meet you out in the courtyard if you want have a look around before we go."
"Alright," said Raven "we'll meet you there."
"Hey wait a second, I know just the person to show you around…" he picked up the phone and dialed a long number. He cleared his throat and engaged in conversation with a person unknown. "Hey, Armstrong! We could use your assistance over in my office."
"Oh no, that wont be necessary" said Raven smiling nervously.
"Nonsense! He's here already, anyway!" Hughes smiled
A huge man came barging in, flexed his over-sized muscles and said, "Who do we have here?" He ran over to Katsuma, picked her up and hugged her so tight that you could see her eyes bulging out of there sockets. "Hello, fellow alchemists! I am Major Armstrong and I'm going to show you around campus!" He dropped Katsuma to the floor with a thud and smiled at Raven. She backed away a few feet to make sure that she didn't get fatally constricted.
"What the hell was that for?" mumbled Katsuma as she rubbed her arms.
They both were pulled through the door by Armstrong and hauled thought the hallways and out the main entrance and then placed on their feet. A man that was very short walked up to Armstrong. He had long golden hair that was in a braid, gold eyes and was wearing a red coat, white gloves and a black shirt and pants. A huge suit of armor walked up next to him. Katsuma looked away for a second. Raven was the only one that saw her blush. The shorter one started talking first,
"Jesus, Armstrong! Don't you ever quit?"
You could literally see sparkles fly around Armstrong's head, while a big smile was plastered on his face. Armstrong turned to the girls,
"Hey I would like you two to meet-"
"Edward Elric" He interrupted. He held out his hand and Raven shook it first. There was a small metal clang as her hand touched his. This caught his attention.
"Raven Ston" he moved a step over and shook Katsuma's hand "Katsuma Stone"
The man, or rather child in the armor took a small bow and said,
"Alphonse Elric"
"'Sup," said Katsuma casually.
"Hey," Raven replied.
"So, you two sisters?" Edward asked pointing at the two girls.
"No, our last names are spelled differently" Said Katsuma and Raven in unison.
"Jinx! Dammit!" They said together… again.
"So, uh. Nice meeting ya'. Come on, Al. We've got stuff to do," Ed waved, Alphonse bowed, and they walked off. Katsuma leaned over to Raven and whispered,
"Ed was kinda cute…" Raven started.
"What? What do you mean cute!" Katsuma shrugged, winked and went back over to Armstrong. Raven sighed heavily and followed. Armstrong grabbed their wrists violently and led them toward a set of iron double doors located at the rear of the courtyard,
"I'm glad to see that you have met someone that you can talk to. Edward and Alphonse are nice people and they are the only ones to ever defeat me in battle!" He roared. Katsuma and Raven exchanged glances and grinned,
"Oh, really? That doesn't mean too much to us unless you show us what you got," Katsuma stated bluntly.
"Yeah, bring it on!" Raven added tauntingly.
Armstrong chuckled pleasantly as sparkles floated around his head, "Well, I would fight you but my superiors would never allow such a battle to take place! I am terribly sorry."
"Psh! You're just an overstuffed chicken!" Katsuma retorted. All of the sparkles around Armstrong fell to the ground, making a sound like breaking glass,
"There's no one watching! It'll be fine! Don't push him Katsuma..." Raven added. Little did they know, but there was someone watching and that someone held the fate of the two young alchemists in his hands.
"SO BE IT! LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!" He rushed at Katsuma arm held back about to punch,
"Oh, sure! Go for the funny one!" She had to use both arms to stop the blow. They locked hands and held each other at a stand still. In the mean time, Raven was transmuting a scythe, like she always did. She gripped the black, polished handle and whacked Armstrong's knees with it. He teetered and Katsuma threw him a powerful punch in the face. He stopped stumbling and stood up straight,
"It'll take more than that to stop me!" He caught Katsuma in the stomach with his arm and knocked the wind out of her. She hacked and put both hands on top of the man's gorilla arm, pushing herself into the air. She came back down and kicked with brute force. She hit him on the back of the neck and he stumbled again. She jumped on and off his shoulder, landing next to Raven. Armstrong made for Raven this time, coming at her ready to kick the living daylights out of anyone in his way. She jumped and landed skillfully behind Katsuma. She could dodge and use weapons, but she wasn't very good at hand-to-hand combat. She walked over to Katsuma. Katsuma grinned evilly, breathing heavily.
"Ready for the double attack?" she panted.
"I was born ready!"
Katsuma cupped her hands and gave Raven a boost into the air. Raven flipped and twisted to hit Armstrong down the back with the handle of her scythe but still land in front of him. Katsuma transmuted a pole and hit Armstrong in the stomach with the top of it in unison with Raven's blow to the back. This made him fall to his knees and the two girls punched him hard in the stomach. He gasped for breath, and then toppled over, making the ground shake.
"Yeees!" Raven shouted with delight. Katsuma gave her a high five like they always did. They had done it. They had won. Suddenly they heard clapping. They spun around to see a man with an eye patch and military outfit walking toward them,
"Very good, you two! I didn't expect something like that! I'm impressed!" Armstrong suddenly stood back up and saluted the man,
"Thank you, furor, sir!" both Raven and Katsuma were shocked. This was the furor! This is the man they had needed to impress! They also stood up straight and saluted.
"Uhhh… thank you, sir!" They said together. The furor laughed and turned back towards the building he came from,
"That was entertaining! Maybe I could arrange a battle between you and two other alchemists. A one on one battle between one of you and one of my state alchemists and the other one of you against another one of my alchemists, just to see how you do." he said slyly. Raven and Katsuma grinned brightly,
"That would be wonderful, sir!" they said happily.
"Good! I'll tell Hughes when I have a designated date, and when I've decided on an alchemist fit for you to battle." The two were too ecstatic to notice the fact that Armstrong had fallen down again the second that the furor left. Soon, the smile faded from Raven's face. Katsuma was puzzled,
"What's up?" she asked. Raven frowned.
"How did he know that we were with Hughes?" Raven explained. Katsuma pondered this for a second.
"I don't know… but it looks like Armstrong needs some help…" Katsuma coughed.
"Something wrong?" Raven asked. Katsuma nodded.
"Yeah, that blow to the stomach I took. It took a lot out of me… You're lucky you can dodge so much better than I can… Let's find Hughes and get out of here…" she replied, coughing again. Armstrong reached up to catch their attention, then gave up. They had left him behind.
"Why must these things happen to me?" he sighed. They walked toward the iron doors again and saw Hughes burst out of them.
"Good news, you two! We have two other visitors staying at my house! My goodness, everyone's just DYING to see my wonderful daughter! Um…. why is Armstrong lying on the ground? What the hell happened out here?" Raven gasped,
"Oh, my God! We left him there!" she and Katsuma immediately ran to Armstrong and helped him up. Katsuma held one arm while Raven supported the opposing one.
"Sorry about that…. we were caught up in the moment…. So, who are the people that are staying at your house, Hughes?" Raven asked as she and her friend were being smashed by the massive arms around their shoulders.
"Weeeeelll, they are none other than the Elric brothers!" he said happily. Katsuma's eyes widened.
"E-Elric brothers? You mean Ed and Al?" she asked.
"Of course! Are there any other Elric brothers? How do you all know them?" he asked.
"We met them in the courtyard earlier," Katsuma replied. Raven shot her a smirk. Katsuma stuck her tongue out at her and they continued lugging Armstrong inside to the infirmary. As they walked, Maes went on and on about Alicia.
"She's the cutest little thing! She follows me every where and sings songs like a little angel!" Katsuma and Raven sighed,
"I'm sure she does…." said Raven, "We really want to get home… we're completely worn out…"
"Um… when are Ed and Al going to arrive? You know, at your house…" Katsuma asked. Hughes thought about this for a second, then said,
"You know what? I have no idea! They'll just show up at some point, I guess…" he laughed and stopped in front of a door with a red cross above it.
"Just drop him off here and we can get going. I really want to see Alicia! I mean, I haven't seen her for at least three hours! Much too long for any father to-"
"Yeah, yeah. We get the picture!" Katsuma cut him off. She was tired of hearing about his kid. She and Raven stepped into a big, white room with a sky blue trim. There were beds against all of the walls in side-by-side rows with curtains surrounding each bed. The two girls dragged Armstrong over to a bed and dropped him on it. It creaked a little, but it didn't break.
"I'm ready when you are!" said Raven. She wanted to rest. The two hadn't in days because of their travels.
"Me too. Let's get going." said Katsuma. All of a sudden, footsteps came from the hallway. Raven spun around.
"Hey, forgetting us already, Hughes?" Edward and Al came through the doorway, calmly. They made their way toward the small group around the bed.
"Hello, again." said Al politely. Hughes turned around and laughed.
"Hey! Sorry, I thought you would come on your own. My car isn't big enough to fit all five of us so we'll have to rent a car. We'll split up onto two groups. Raven and Al can come with me and Katsuma and Ed can go in the rental. Hope you don't mind." said Hughes shrugging. Katsuma looked desperately over at Raven, but all she did was shrug as well.
"Come on. We gotta go flag down a taxi." said Ed, motioning for Katsuma to follow. She did… nervously. Hughes took Raven and Al down a long hallway and some stairs. They reached the parking garage only to find a tall, black haired man struggling with his keys.
"Damned things…" he mumbled to himself. Hughes walked over to him and waved in a friendly way.
"Heheh! And I thought you slept here, Mustang! How's it been?" Mustang looked over at him and shoved the keys back in his pocket angrily,
"So, did you force these two to see your kid or is it on their own free will, Hughes?" Mustang smiled and nodded his head in recognition. Hughes laughed and shook Mustang's hand.
"No, no, no. They're staying at my place for the night. Allow me to introduce them to you. You know Al Elric," he said gesturing towards Alphonse, "and this is Raven. I met her and her friend two years ago. They stopped Kimblie when he was on a rampage." Hughes became very serious when he mentioned this. Mustang raised and eyebrow in suspicion.
"So, this is one of the girls you were saved by?"
"Yup!" Hughes grinned brightly. Mustang cleared his throat and shook Raven's hand, roughly. Raven spied the ignition cloth gloves and the alchemy symbol on the back of them immediately.
"I apologize for my previous rudeness. Hughes and I go way back. I'm Colonel Mustang." He said in his calm voice. Raven smiled nervously. She hadn't been around many military officials yet besides the furor and Armstrong and she and Katsuma hadn't dealt with Armstrong very well.
"Raven Ston. Nice to meet you, Colonel." She replied. Hughes jumped between them and clutched his hands together.
"Let's get going, now! I'm just dying to see Elisia!" He grabbed Al and Raven and dragged them to the car. They were soon out of the parking garage and on the highway. Raven thought to herself as she stared out the window,
'I wonder how Kat's doing…'
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