I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I do own Lan Orion and any other charcters . Toshiro is not created by me but by Fenne-chan. She has allowed me permission to use him in this fanfic.

Chapter Three: Lose Control

Roy handed getting the tickets while Riza and the others waited on the platform. When Roy came back, he was grinning.

"Why the hell are you smiling?" Ed said.

"Because I just saved some money by using Geiko." Roy smiled.

"What the hell is that?" Ed yelled.

"Do you have to question me on everything I say. I don't know what it is. I just felt saying it. But I did save some money. I didn't have to pay for Orion's seat. You should ride inside Al, it saves a lot of money." Roy answered. "The trains leaving soon so let's hurry on."

Ed growled while Al held his hand up in front of his brothers' face and said, "Ed, calm down."

"Al, did you hear what he said?"

"I did, Ed. It was only a joke." Al said quickly, but his brother was not listening to him. Edward was off looking at a girl who appeared to be thirteen or so had just bumped into another person and was apologizing nonstop.

"She looks familiar…" Ed said to no one in particular.

"Yea, she's kinda cute too." Al said.

"Who's cute?! I wanna see!" Lan yelled.

"C'mon boys. We don't want to miss the train." Riza said over her shoulder as she walked toward the loading platform of the station.

"Yes, Lieutenant." Ed said and he and Al rushed over to catch up with her.

A minute later and they were all on the train and in their seats. Edward and Alphonse sat on one side of the little two-seat train box while Roy and Riza sat on the other half. Roy and Edward both stared out the window since they were sitting facing each other. Sitting diagonally across from them, the girl who had bumped into the stranger and had apologized greatly sat there. She was sitting all alone. Her back was to them so they could not see much of what she was doing or what she looked like up close. Her head was slightly leaned forward and resting against the window so it almost looked like she was sleeping. But if you got close enough, you would see that she was not sleeping, her eyes were wide open and her fingers were fiddling with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Hey, can I get out for a little bit? I'm starting to get cramps in here… and a little bit claustrophobic as well…" Lan whined.

"No." Roy replied.

"No." Lan said back, in a mocking tone. Lan then began to mumble on about how unfair it was being treated like that. He complained for several minutes. As he mumbled and complained, the train pulled out of the station and began to make its way to Central. He finally quieted down when he got tired of talking and took a little nap, much to everyone's relief.

Riza and Roy began to chitchat between themselves while Winry began to complain to Edward about taking better care of his automail and how it was a bother for him to come all the way out there to fix it for him while Edward stared out the window as he ignored her. Al sat quietly with this hands resting in his lap.

Ten minutes into the ride, the door burst suddenly open and a man who had very short hair and black sunglasses walked in. He held a gun in his hand and in his other an object that almost looked like a bouncy ball that young children would most likely be seen playing with. Two other guys stood behind him. They all were wearing clothing you would expect a bandit type person to wear.

"Hey there people! This here train is now under the control of Sorano. So sit back and relax until we decide what to do with you scumbags," the one in front said. As he spoke, he was mainly looking at Edward and his group.

"Troy, should we, you know…" one of the behinders said.

"Who the hell are you people?" Edward asked. He had to sit up and look behind to see whom he was talking too.

Troy ignored them and whispered something to the two other men. They both nodded and left the way they had just come from.

"Take a nap. It looks like you need one." Troy laughed and then threw the ball in Roy's direction. Before it made contact, he ran out of the area and slammed the door behind him.

"What is that?" Edward asked as he followed the ball with his eyes.

The ball gently hit Roy on the chest and then bounced onto the floor.

"What was so threatening about that?" Roy wondered as he began to slowly stand up. A second after he made that comment, the swivel of smoke began to pour out of the ball. Within seconds the five of them were surrounded by smoke. The smoke was only covering around them. The girl who was sitting across from them was unaffected because it did not reach her. When it cleared everything was silent.

"Brother? Are you ok?" Al looked at his brother and the others and realized they were all sleeping. He sighed in relief that that was the only thing that the gas did.

"Hey Tin-man? What the hell is going on out there?" Lan questioned as he tapped on the side of Al's body.

"Lan! You're awake?" Al cried out happily.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Lan snapped.

Al explained to him what just transpired.

"Oh…Good think I was in here then, huh?" Lan laughed. "Now how about letting me out of here, old buddy?"

"I-I can't." Al replied.

"What if I helped you help all the people on this train and save them from the big bad bullies on the train? You know you cant' do it alone. What do you say? I help you for a little bit of freedom. I know you want me to help you since you most likely want innocent people to get hurt and all that nonsense, right?" Lan said in a laid back tone.

"I do want help…but…"Al began to say.

"But nothing. You need my help and that is that. Let me help you. No one will ever know or find out about this. This will be our little secret, but you will own me once again. Pretty please? Let me out? My back is really starting to hurt from sleeping like this." Lan complained.

Al thought it over and then sighed. "Alright. But don't do anything bad." Al opened his armor. After he was out, he closed it back up.

Lan climbed out and stretched. His backs joints cracked as they began to get use to being up straight and moving in normal ways. "Ah, now that feels nice." He noticed the girl out of the corner of his eye and looked at her. "She's still awake too. Did you know that?"

Al was surprised and looked over at her as well. "Uh, hello miss. Are you okay?"

The girl looked at them both of them and nodded. "Yes. Just startled by this, I guess. This is the first time I've been on a train and it was attacked or whatever by people like that. It seems like those bandits didn't like your group in particular."

"Yea. You're right about that." Lan answered.

"I'm Alphonse Elric, um, just so you know and all." Al said nervously.

"I'm Lan Orion. Not that you really need to know or anything." he informed her.

"I'm Takanari Tsukami." She looked at the two of them and her face suddenly became pale as she realized that Al was an empty suit of armor. "Wait… weren't you in the armor? If you're not in the armor…then how are you talking and moving? And if you aren't in there…who is? What is…going on? I should have stayed home today…this is way too much for my small brain to handle…"

"I…uh…we…ah…" Al stuttered, not sure what to say.

She just not realized that? Is this girl slow or something? Oh well. Better get her mind off of Al, I guess… Lan looked down at her. "Isn't Takanari a boys name?"

"Yes. But my parents thought I was going to be a boy and they had grown so fond of that name so that when I was born they decided to keep that name for me." She smiled, forgetting about the whole Al being a talkin' walkin' suit of armor.

"That kinda makes your parents sound lazy…" Lan folded his arms over his chest. He began to tap his foot impatiently. "I don't mean to sound like the goody two shoes in this group, but shouldn't we hurry up and kick the bad guys ass. Not my ass though, since I'm not the cause of this mayhap. And then after we are all done we can hold hands and skip off in to the sunset singing cheesy songs."

"Tsukami-san, we have to go see what is going on. Please remain here where it is safe." Al told her. He bowed slightly and began to turn to go through the door the bandits had appeared and left from. Lan did the same.

"Please, wait. Let me help you." Takanari stood up. "And please call me Takanari…or Taka…or Nari…Kana. Or whatever you wish."

"No way. It's really dangerous. We don't know what we are up against. Besides you'll only get in the way." Lan was beginning to get very impatient.

"He's right. It is going to be dangerous." Al told her sadly.

"Please… I know alchemy…if that makes any difference. I'm still learning it all though so I'm not the best. But I really want to help." Takanari pleaded. "What if I stayed here and protected your friends in case they come back?"

Al nodded. "That sounds great. What do you think Lan?" Al asked, looking at the seventeen-year-old teenager.

What do I think? I think this girl is absolutely slow in the head or stupid or something. First you tell her that you can't come with us, so then she gets the idea to stay here and protect them. She would have most likely ended up doing that without bringing it up in a conversation. She acts like she is thirteen years old…maybe she is…I should ask her… He looked at Al. "Fine. Whatever. I don't' care what she doe as long as she does not get in my way. Can we go now?"

Al nodded. "Yea. We'll be back as soon as we can. Good luck."

Takanari smiled. "Thanks. Good luck to you as well."

Lan climbed rapidly over the seat so he was in front of Al. They both walked to the door and left. As they did this, Takanari walked into the aisle and began to look back and forth at the two train doors at each end of the cart. She was very determined to get the job done very well and protect those people who were trusted in her care.

Lan stopped and turned to face Al. "How the hell should we go about this? Wanna do it the old fashion way and charge in?"

"Sure. But I should go first. Just incase they have guns or something. They won't go through my armor." Al told him.

"Don't worry about me. But…are you sure your armor won't be damaged at all?" Lan was curious to find out what would happen if Al was shot.

"Yep. I'll be fine." Al commented.

"Fine, you go first. But I'm not scared of a gun. I can protect myself from guns. So don't be thinking I'm so helpless child." Lan told Al as he stepped aside as Al passed him in the aisle.

They walked through the cart and passed all the empty carts.

"I wonder where those punks are…and why the hell is this thing so empty?" Lan wondered.

"I-" Al began but was cut off when the door they were heading toward slammed open. Standing there was a tall man with a machine gun in his hands. He had a patch over his left right eye. He stared at them in surprise. He then whirled around and ran back to the next cart.

"Guess we're going the right way. Not that there is any other optional way to go, but that's beside the point. I bet he is running and crying to his boss. The sight of me being here must have scared the shit out of him." Lan laughed. "Let's go, Tin-Man." He put his hands on the back of Al's and began to push Al so he would walk faster. "I want to get into a nice fight with someone. I think I'm starting to get rusty."

"But you fought with my brother the day. You can't get rusty that fast." Al said. "Slow down." The pressure on this back lessened and he walked over to the door and opened it. This cart was empty just like the last one. They both made their way to the middle of the cart but stopped when they both heard a rustling and clicking sounds. Lan was just about to comment on how he thought they were not alone anymore when suddenly they were surrounded by at least fifteen bandits who had hidden themselves under the train seats and had waited until Al and Lan were in the middle. They all had their machine guns pointed at the two.

Lan spun around so he and Al were back to back. Lan saw the bandit from a few seconds earlier and smirked. "So, where's your boss? We have a meeting with him about all of this."

"We won't tell you! You're going to be dead in a few minutes anyway!" He grinned.

"Hey, I thought our boss was back at the hideout?" Someone asked.

"Shut up!" The patched-eyed bandit yelled. "Fire! Now!"

All the bandits pushed down on their triggers and opened fire on them. Bullets began to speed toward them.

Lan smirked. Ever since these guys had popped out of their hiding spots Lan had been secretly creating water while his hand was behind his back. Meanwhile, Al was worried about Lan and how he would make sure Lan got out of this unharmed.

X X

I think there may be some glitches in this chapter or upcoming chapters. When I woke chapter one I had a completely different idea about how I wanted to do this from what it is now. But then I started to get ideas and then it changed... so I don't think I corrected a lot of the things in the first chapter to match the later chapters, so I am extremely sorry if sometimes do not match up. I shall try to fix them when I get some extra time.