AN: I would like to officially say that I don't own either Fullmetal Alchemist or X-men Evolution. If I did well things would be great but I don't so there. Those things aside anything I only own my own characters so this one should be very interesting. Let's see where this one takes me, I'm thinking it will be a short one but who knows. Take it easy and don't forget to review.
Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth. - Alphonse Elric
Edward Elric, the eldest of the two brothers stood before the Gate of Alchemy or Truth if you called it that. Truth is after all such a subjective thing, and that doesn't change from looking at a gate. This was however his chance, the chance to set things right for his brother and he wasn't going to let it pass him by. He watched as the dark creatures that seemed to live inside of the gate reached out for him; it was time for him to make his sacrifice to get his brother Alphonse back.
"Come on take me you damn bastards, this is fair right. Me for him, hurry up and get it over with damn it." Edward yelled at the dark creatures, they moving faster in response to what they had heard.
It only took a few more seconds as he was dragged into the gate, turning a little to see the gate doors slam shut behind him. He said nothing and really thought about nothing as he was pulled through the gate until he yelled out in pain. The little creatures had taken his right arm and left leg once more. He continued to yell in pain as he noticed something that had escaped his first visit to the damnable darkness, another gate waiting at the end. This gate however, looked very unusual as some kind of energy started to course through the gate, it seemingly opening itself for Edward.
'Another exit is that even possible, what the hell is going on here. Where are these bastards taking me exactly, I have to wonder what exactly is on the other side. It doesn't matter though I have to make my way back to Al, I just have too. Why is it glowing like that, something isn't quite right for some damn reason with that gate.' Ed thought as he was literally thrown towards the exit by the little dark creatures that seemed to run the gate.
Ed covered his eyes with his left hand as he was surrounded by a bright light and seemingly spit out of the gate. He could hear all kinds of noises that he assumed were automobiles, the young man crawling over to a corner. He was without his recently recreated right arm and left leg, once again the two had been taken from him and now he couldn't stand or walk. He looked around the area carefully trying to figure out where he was only to find himself in an alley between a few taller buildings.
"Hey any one there," Edward started as he attempted to call for help, "I wouldn't mind some assistance, damn gate taking my body parts again. I swear I'll blow that thing to bits if it spits out another homunculi like Wrath or Envy."
Ed started to draw a transmutation circle on the ground with a piece of chalk that he had, 'I hope this works, I normally use two hands but it's not like I got a lot of choices right now. Come on I don't want any one finding me naked damn it.'
Pushing his left hand down on the ground he felt the familiar surge of alchemy happening and sure enough he was creating some clothes for him. Up until this point the short alchemist had been naked but now he at least had a cloak to cover himself. He tried calling for help one more time, seeing no one appear to help him, the young man leaned his back against the wall seemingly lost in thought since no one could hear him.
'Some how I just know that arrogant bastard Mustang is going to pop out and talk about how he had to save my ass again. If he does as soon as I get my automail back I am so going to kick his ass. I am kind of worry about how the others are doing right now.' Edward thought as he looked up thinking that he saw a friendly face.
Xavier Institute
Charles Xavier rubbed his chin after using Cerebro to detect a new mutant signature. At least he thought it was a new mutant, a little over an hour ago Cerebro had activated and showed him the picture of a short blond headed young man with only one arm and leg. It was a very unusual finding in Bayville before that moment this young man had never shown up before on his searches. Using his gift he could see the young man just resting against a back wall that was until he was disrupted by Logan and Scott's arrival.
"Logan I have a new recruit for you to pick up, you might want to take Jean and Scott with you now that they are out of high school. I would send more but I'm not for sure how this particular person will react. This picture is all we have to go on, and the name Edward Elric but you may want to be cautious." Professor Xavier stated as he looked over to witness his two oldest students nodding in agreement.
"No problem Chuck I'll go get the short one for ya, how hard could it be?" Logan barked as he motioned for the two of them to follow him.
"You may want to avoid calling him that Logan," Charles stated seeing his friend looking at him oddly, "our new possible friend has an issue with his height. He also seems to share your short temper when it comes to a few things."
"Professor," Jean interrupted slowly not wanting to be disrespectful, "what are we going to do about his…"
Professor Xavier merely smiled at his students concern before answering, "I've already contacted Forge and Hank is making preparations as well. That is at the moment all I can do for him if he decides to come back with you."
"Okay then, it doesn't look like this will be much of a problem, but how come we are leaving all of a sudden to pick him up Professor and what are his abilities exactly?" Scott asked curious as to who this new recruit was exactly.
"I'm sorry Scott but the only thing I got from Cerebro was his name and location." Professor Xavier stated as they all looked at him, "I do not know what to expect from his abilities so be careful."
"Anything else we need to know about shortie here," Logan growled more than ready to get this little mission over with so he could get back.
"I must remind you that hostility towards mutants has decreased lately but there are still problems even though it has been a year after Apocalypse defeat. Our new friend seems to have landed in a bad part of Bayville so please get him here quickly." Professor Xavier spoke as the three nodded and quickly left the room to carry out their assignment.
The Professor slowly turned back to return to Cerebro as the three left him to find Edward Elric. Sending just three individuals on a recruiting mission was something that he wanted to avoid but he didn't want to drive Edward away by sending a lot of people to meet him. He decided that keeping a close eye on the four of them by using Cerebro, locking onto Edward's signal.
Edward Elric looked up from his spot, he couldn't figure out if these people were ignorant or just plain stupid. He had spent twenty minutes yelling for help, and not a single damn person had come to look at him. A rather large smirk appeared on his face as he thought about the chaos he could cause these idiots for not helping him, but that disappeared a moment later.
'Maybe these idiots are afraid of alchemists or something, or maybe they are deaf. I swear I would use some alchemy to get me out of this mess but it's kind of hard to use it with only one hand. If only I had my other hand then I could…' Edward thought as a shadow started to block out his light.
"Hey dumb ass you are blocking my light," Edward barked a little pissed that someone had interrupted him as he looked down the alley seeing a black van and three individuals starring at him.
"Hey bub you Edward Elric," Logan growled as he watched the young man look at Logan for a moment.
"About damn time someone finally hears me or better yet recognizes the Fullmetal Alchemist, or maybe Mustang must have finally gotten off his ass and…" Edward stopped talking immediately upon seeing their confused looks.
'Jean is the Professor sure this guy might not need some psychological help. I don't even understand what he is saying.' Scott thought as Jean looked at him and then Edward.
'No he isn't crazy but I'm having a very hard time reading his thoughts. I don't know what is going on here.' Jean replied sending a message through the link the two of them had.
"I don't who you people are," Ed barked, "but you better back off. I'm a damn good alchemist and good enough to deal with you three even without my right arm."
"Bub, we just want to talk with you, we can help you with your gift and with your little problem of not having any limbs." Logan growled in response as his eyes met Ed's for the first time.
"Gift what the hell are you talking about old man, I'm an alchemist and I don't need your damn help. Well maybe a little, you know where I can get some automail at and some clothes." Ed stated he quickly reminded himself of two problems that he currently had to deal with before he could get back to his friends and family.
"Shortie you sure you didn't hit your head, you are talking like a crazy man." Logan growled as Ed's entire face changed.
"Hey old timer, I'm not short so make sure to get that straight. As soon as I get some automail I'm going to kick your ass for that comment. No one calls me short," Ed barked as his face showed off his anger and temper, "Hey old timer you listening to me, tell me where to get some automail and I'll let this slide."
"I'm sorry Edward but we have never heard of automail before, perhaps if you tell us what it is we might be able to help you." Jean commented attempting to stop the growing argument since Ed had grown even more hostile now that Logan seemed to be ignoring him.
Ed looked at her curiously before replying, "How could you have not heard of automail, it's the mechanical limbs a person gets when they lose one for some reason or another."
"Oh you mean a prosthetic limb or something along that line," Scott stated as Ed started to laugh at him in response.
"Hell no who would want one of those out dated pieces of shit, automail is like having a real limb except you cant feel anything and its metallic. Man what backwards hell hole did I land in if you don't have automail?" Ed barked in response, looking at the confused faces of Scott and Jean.
"Well this is certainly a problem because as I've said before I've never heard of automail and the United States is probably the most advanced country on Earth. What about you Logan?" Scott asked curiously as he looked at the person he cared about.
"Never heard of it shades, I think shorties memory is messed up or he is delusional." Logan growled in response watching with a slight grin as the young man tried to stand up.
"Old timer just you wait," Ed boasted as he shook his left hand at Logan, "as soon as I get some automail I'm going to kick your ass for this."
Jean calmly intervened once more before the situation deteriorated, "Ed, I understand this is confusing but we would like to help you."
"What the hell is the United States? At least tell me what day it is, and your names. You know mine but you haven't introduced yourselves at all." Ed stated as his smile started to fade away due to the lack of information he seemed to be receiving.
"Uh well I'm Scott and this is my girlfriend Jean. That there is Mr. Logan; he is an instructor at the Xavier Institute. By the way it's the second day of May and the year is 2005." Scott answered seeing a shocked look at Ed's face.
"I don't know who the hell you are trying to fool but you better back off right now. I'm not afraid of you guys, and I've never heard of this so called Xavier Institute. Better not be some kind of new military group, I can't stand the military." Ed boasted as he looked cautiously at them.
Ed stared at them, his mind quickly running through the possibilities, 'I don't know who these people are, but they are starting to annoy me. Particularly the one that keeps calling me short, but it can't be that date. It just can't be 100 years in the future, what about Al, Winry and the others, what happened to them. It's just doesn't make sense, there isn't a way to time travel with alchemy so how can that be possible unless that damn gate did this. Damn it I don't know what is going on or who I can trust.'
"Please calm down we aren't trying to hurt you. In fact we want to help you." Jean stated calmly, the young man seemed to have gone into shock when Scott told him the time and date.
"Lying bastards, I don't believe you, it just can't be that date." Ed yelled his temper getting the best of him as he starred at the three.
Ed just starred at him quickly using the chalk to draw a transmutation symbol on the wall that was right next to him. He was preparing to use his only hand to create some kind of defense when he stopped and fell to the ground. He felt pain coming from his body and could feel that he was about to pass out. He took one last look at the red haired girl and the guy with unusual glasses before passing out in pain.
'I hate it when this happens why I couldn't just get one transmutation off. I'm sorry Al; I really wanted to make it back to you and Winry. We could have all been together again but I think these people might be the ones that finally kill me.' Ed thought as he passed out from pain, Logan and Scott picking up his body when they realized that he was only wearing a piece of cloth.
"I wonder what he was trying to do," Jean said as she looked at the symbol he drew on the wall using a camera phone to take a picture of it for the Professor before catching up to Scott and Logan placing the young man inside of the van.
"Hey red lets go, I got better stuff to do than baby sit right now." Logan growled as Jean climbed into the van waiting patiently as the van drove off with Edward Elric inside.
"Scott that mark he placed on the wall was really weird; I've never seen anything quite like it. I wonder if it has something to do with his mutant ability. He seemed very on edge for the most part." Jean said as they looked at the young man in the back he seemed to be mumbling something about equivalent exchange.
"I wish I knew Jean," Scott replied as he looked over at her, "I don't know but this kid doesn't seem right if you ask me, he talked about alchemy and alchemist as if they were real. I'm sure the Professor knows what he is doing though."
"Winry, Al, I'm so sorry that I wont be making it back. I promise that I'll…" Ed mumbled seemingly enough still unconscious from all of the pain.
No one said anything else after that comment from the unconscious man; Logan had already taken the liberty of informing the Professor of their arrival. It was Logan who drove the van back into a garage where Kurt was waiting to teleport Ed down to the infirmary. Jean and Scott opened the door slowly allowing him to carefully grab the young man and teleport him down to the infirmary in a puff of smoke.
"Dr. McCoy, here ve are, you might vant to hurry. He definitely doesn't look very vell." Kurt spoke his German accent coming through as Dr. Hank McCoy quickly appeared.
Dr. McCoy grabbed a tray of medical instruments before speaking, "Thank you Kurt, I'll handle it from here. If you could go get Forge and the Professor for me I would appreciate."
"Ja, I vill be right back." Kurt answered as he disappeared in a puff of sulfur once more leaving the young man alone with the medical expert.
"Well my young friend, I don't know how you were injured the way that I see you now, but it certainly will be a fascinating story. Now let's see what is wrong with you exactly." Dr. McCoy spoke trying to in his own unique way comfort the Elric who had been brought to him.
He was easily surprised by the marks on the boy, his right arm, and left leg seemed to have been torn cleanly off. That made absolutely no sense to the man, it was impossible for wounds to be this clean and to be sealed the way they were without some form of treatment or another. The other thing that he found unusual about the young man's injuries was the fact that he seemed to have been conscious up until he was brought back to the institute. He looked up from the young man seeing Forge and Professor Xavier entering the room.
"How is our young friend doing Hank?" Professor Xavier spoke as he wheeled himself closer to the young man that had been recently brought in.
"Well I think that he willed himself to stay awake but what ever he tried to do when the others found him was just too much for his body to take. He just passed out from the pain apparently, but what I find more interesting are these clean wounds that he has. His right arm and left leg were cleanly taken off and sealed so he wouldn't bleed to death." Dr. McCoy spoke as he looked at the young man that he had been preparing for sedation.
"Hmm do what you can then, Forge I'll need you to look into creating better prosthetic limbs for him later preferably after he wakes up. I'm going to see if he said anything interesting to the others while he was conscious." Professor Xavier spoke as the two nodded in agreement, watching him disappear but not before taking a quick inquisitive look at Edward Elric.
'I have to admit young man that you seem to have dropped out of no where. I have no idea what is going on but clearly things are going to be very interesting when you wake up here soon. I wonder where you came from; I still don't know how you remained hidden from Cerebro. Granted there are a lot of mutants now, so it is possible that I have missed quite few. Even the military these days seems to have mutants being trained and hidden from me.' Professor Xavier thought as he continued to roll heading up stairs to meet with Scott, Jean, and Logan.
In another part of the institute, Scott and Jean had their own problems to deal with before meeting the Professor. The problem was that they were currently being hounded by the New Mutants, who as usual were always interested when someone new showed up the institute. Especially the girls were interested now that a new guy had shown up and since getting info from Scott and Jean was easier than Logan, the two were being bombarded with questions.
"Come on you guys; spill the beans about the new guy?" Tabby asked continually pestering the two until they finally decided to cave.
"Tabby I'm sorry we don't have time to answer that we have to meet the Professor right now." Scott stated politely, he knew that if he attempted anything different it probably wouldn't work.
"He's right Tabby," Jean added as she picked up where her boyfriend left off, "however, his name is Edward Elric and no we don't know what he can do. You should keep that in mind before you start flirting with him."
"Hmm so we only get a name, well you got to tell us if he is cute or not?" Jubilee asked, it was sort of a right of passage for talking about a new arrival that way.
Jean merely smiled before answering, "I'm sorry I didn't really consider that, now we had better get going before we are late."
"Jean, Scott," Kitty chimed in before the conversation could continue phasing half way into the room, "hey there you are I wanted to ask you to test this new recipe."
"Sorry Kitty we got a meeting with the Professor but I'm sure the others would be more than willing," Scott stated he had been desperately looking for an excuse the moment she mentioned testing her cooking.
Meanwhile back in the infirmary Edward finally managed to wake up some without filling pain. The young man mumbled something before trying to sit up and then immediately sat back down when pain went through his upper body. Ed just leaned back to his original position attempting to think of what he did to get into this situation.
"What the hell, how did I get here? Where the hell am I? Hello is there any one in here?" Ed questioned before taking a deep breathe and determining what the room was, "Ah damn I knew it not another hospital, I swear meeting all of those damn homunculi took ten years off my life."
'Damn I hate hospitals and what's worse is there is absolutely no one here. Then again it's not like I can go any where with out my other leg. Some where there has to be someone laughing at me.' Ed thought as the door to the room opened and a man covered in blue fur entered the room.
"What the hell are you? I've seen a lot of things but well you definitely weren't covered. Hey blue gorilla guy I'm talking to you, if you want a fight I'll be more than…I swear you better not be a chimera or something." Ed barked sarcastically, he wasn't in the best of moods and now this guy covered in blue fur had entered the room.
"Ah I must apologize if I startled you young man, I didn't expect you to wake up so soon to be honest with you. My name is Dr. Hank McCoy, I apologize if my condition startles you but I'm afraid this is how I normally look and I can assure you that I am not a chimera as you call them." Dr. McCoy spoke as Ed looked at him curiously.
"Well I guess I'll just have to trust you since I can't really move." Ed replied he wasn't thrilled about his current lack of limbs.
He was surprised as the man grabbed a chart and wrote some things down before responding, "I must admit that we are working on getting you some prosthetics, but I am very curious as to what took your limbs so completely."
"Yeah well that isn't something I want to talk about, tell me something is what they said about the date true. Is it really the 21st century?" Ed asked his mood a bit somber because of a few thoughts going through his head.
"Yes, that is the date, is there a problem?" Dr. McCoy asked as the young man looked at him nervously.
"Hmm, nothing that you got to worry about, so why can't you get me some automail surely there is someone that makes it if this is the date you say it is. I mean you should have some kick ass automail by now." Ed countered curious as to why no one seemed to know what automail was.
"Ah what is automail exactly? I've honestly never heard of it." Dr. McCoy answered causing a groan of frustration from Ed.
"I don't see why you are acting so clueless but fine I'll explain it to you the best I can. At least alchemy still works, it would be easier to show you if I had my other hand. I could just…" Ed spoke when the door to the infirmary hissed open.
Ed watched the door carefully, now that he thought about it the door seemed to open on its own. It didn't have any door handles and what surprised him more was to see an older man come in on a wheelchair. It was an interesting moment as the Professor seemed to look at Ed both just staring at each other. Ed couldn't help but get a creepy feeling when he looked at the Professor.
"So who are you? It's rude to interrupt someone while they are talking." Ed stated angrily, he was starting to become irritated with the entire situation.
"Hello Edward, I'm Professor Charles Xavier. I founded the Xavier Institute for people with gifts like ours." Professor Xavier spoke when he noticed a confused reaction being made.
"Gift, huh what the hell are you talking about. I don't have a gift; I'm just an alchemist that's all." Edward spoke not convince by what the man was saying.
"I see well then allow me to demonstrate and then we can talk further. We can also talk about this alchemy you keep referring to." Professor Xavier spoke placing his hands on his head and getting ready to contact the young man telepathically as he looked on seemingly deep in thought.
'I can't move and now I got a guy in what appears to be a motorized wheelchair talking to me. Better question would be what this damn gift is, it seems like everyone has been talking about it lately. I swear this place is even freakier than being a dog of the military, at least I sort of understood things then. What the hell this guy gives me the creeps, and I just want to get out of here and find out what happened to Al, Winry and the others.' Ed thought stopping for a moment when he heard a voice that was definitely not his in his head.
"Hey you bald guy get out of my head right now, I don't know how the hell you pulled that off and I don't care. You stay out of my head from now on understand." Ed barked, the Professor was very surprised by his violent out burst.
Professor Xavier stood there looking at him cautiously before speaking, "I apologize Edward I didn't mean to surprise you. I was just demonstrating the gift that I have, and you clearly have one as well."
"Okay that's enough about gifts, I just want to get some automail and I'll get out of your way. I got places to go and very important people to find." Ed spoke in a rather demanding tone as the Professor looked at him with a smile.
"I understand you are feeling very confused right now but if you'll let me I believe that I can help you, if you will let me." Professor Xavier said as Ed looked at him looking at him directly in the eyes.
"Hmm I don't know why but I trust you. What do you want from me exactly? Why are you trying to help me?" Ed asked his sarcastic attitude disappearing for a moment while he waited for an answer.
"I understand your confusion and if you'll allow me I believe it could go much faster if you'll allow me to enter your mind. We could share information that much faster by handling things this way." Professor Xavier answered as Ed looked at him and then nodded a response.
"Okay old timer," Ed started as he looked at the man, "but if anything goes wrong I'm haunting your ass or whatever the equivalent is on that matter. I don't want to end up messed up because of this so you better not screw up old timer."
Professor Xavier brought his hands up touching Ed's head preparing to enter his head. This would provide a lot of answer and help make the coming days a lot easier to handle in the long run. Edward focused on the information that the Professor was showing trying to make sense of everything that he was being shown. He looked on as the Professor stopped showing him images, the young man looking utterly confused.
"Could you guys leave me alone for a moment, I have a lot of things to think about now. I need to make sense of everything that I just learned." Edward spoke as the two nodded, as the young man stood there in deep thought about the situation.
'I don't understand everything he showed me but at least an hour passed when he gave me that information. This isn't my world, but another one the question is why I am here. This is definitely going to be a problem, but at least if I found my way here there has to be a way back.' Ed thought as he watched the two of them leave the room.
Next Chapter: Exchange Part 2
Ed meets the rest of the X-men and New Mutants after receiving a new set of limbs to help him move along. Problems continue to emerge however when he demonstrates alchemy to them for the very first time.