"AGH!" I screamed, holding my red cheek. "Was the slap really necessary?"

"That's what you get for taking my boys away for 2 days, and then disappearing for a year and a half." Sam and Rick's mother, Mrs. Mustang, said.

Mrs. Mustang had brown, curly hair, which reached the middle of her back. Her skin was slightly wrinkled from years of age. She was roughly 6 feet tall, maybe 6 and a half, and she's quite skinny.

"I was thinking you'd forget about that field trip after a while." I said. "Most people would after a year and a half."

"Well I'M not most people." Mrs. Mustang said, proudly.

"Why did I get the friends with a mom with a photographic memory?" I asked, when something popped into my head. "Actually, that may help me out here."

"Oh?" Mrs. Mustang asked. "And why's that?"

"I would like to know more about my grandfather." I said. "Apparently, he was close with your father. I believe he was known as 'the Fullmetal Alchemist'."

"Oh?" Mrs. Mustang asked. "You have the blood of the Elrics in you?"

"I guess, but I'm not sure how that's special." I said. "That's what I want to figure out. What things has he kept from me?"

"Do you not pay attention in school?" Mrs. Mustang asked.

"Funny, someone asked me that exact question a couple of days ago." I said. "I never had the money to go to school, you know that."

"Yet you were able to decipher your ancestors' notes?" Mrs. Mustang asked.

I shot a glare at Sam and Rick.

"You didn't make it seem so secret." Sam said.

"She noticed something lifting the snow outside, what else were we going to say?" Rick asked.

"A snowstorm could have worked." I said. "Or you could have said that you weren't there."

"Yeah, I guess that could have worked." Sam said.

"Why didn't we think of that again?" Rick asked.

"I don't really know. Do you?" Sam asked.

"Not really, no." Rick said.

I sighed, as I turned my attention back to Mrs. Mustang. "Yes, I was able to decipher them. It wasn't as difficult as one would think."

"So two absolute fools could decipher your grandfather's and your great-grandfather's master work?" Mrs. Mustang asked.

"I don't know..." I said, turning my attention to Sam and Rick. "You two up for it?"

"Hey, unlike you, we actually go to school!" Sam exclaimed.

"We probably have more knowledge in science than you do!" Rick exclaimed.

"You sure about that?" I asked. "How about YOU decipher those notes?"

Sam and Rick gulped.

"Don't think you can?" I asked. "Come on it's easy."

4 HOURS LATER

"I give up." Sam said.

"Same. This is impossible." Rick said.

"Really?" I asked. "How much did you get done?"

"Maybe a paragraph." Sam said.

"Spread out over the whole thing." Rick said.

"Weird. I remember having more than that done by now." I said.

"Well, you didn't come here for these notes, anyways." Mrs. Mustang said. "I'll tell you what my father told me about your grandfather."

"Finally, no more detours!" I exclaimed in victory.

AFTER AN EXPLANATION ON THE HOMUNCULI, AND THEIR CONFLICT WITH ED

"And that's all he told me." Mrs. Mustang said.

"Okay, so I know his enemies, as well as their master." I said. "Nothing about him specifically, though."

"Well maybe the Armstrongs know something." Mrs. Mustang said. "Alex Louis Armstrong spent a lot of time with your grandfather."

"They won't even let me talk to them without evidence that I know their son, but he never leaves the house unattended." I said. "The farthest he'll go is about the distance between his house and any form of physical activity, such as chopping wood."

"What about another Armstrong you know?" Mrs. Mustang asked.

"She's visiting friends in Ishval, and... Well, Sid would kill me if I went near her." I said. "That's about it."

"Well take your chances with the girl." Sam suggested. "Maybe Sid won't mind you talking to her."

"Although his sister might." Rick said.

"Worth a shot." I said. "I'll get Cassy."

With that all finished up, I decided to step outside of the building, and headed for the train station.

"Wait!" Sam shouted, as he and Rick ran to catch up to me.

"We're coming with!" Rick shouted.

"I won't argue." I said, as I continued walking. "If you want to come with, you can. I don't believe in dead weights, so you might come in handy somewhere."

"Was that a compliment or an insult?" Sam asked after he caught up to me.

"Just take it as a compliment." Rick said, as he joined his brother.

"Boys, wait!" Mrs. Mustang shouted, as she ran to catch up to us. She was carrying a white briefcase.

"Mom, we're going." Sam said.

"Dylan's our friend, we're not letting anything get in his way, or ours." Rick said.

"I know." Mrs. Mustang said. "But if you're going with him, you may want this."

She handed the boys the briefcase.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, but their grandfather told me to give this to my sons should they ever choose to leave home." Mrs. Mustang said.

"And you just blindingly agreed?" I asked, as Sam and Rick took the briefcase.

"Thank you, mom," Sam said.

"We'll treat it with care, and we'll be back soon." Rick said.

After that, we continued walking away, as Mrs. Mustang waved goodbye.

"Why didn't you join me the first time?" I asked.

"Reasons of unimportance." Sam and Rick said simultaneously.

"Whatever. Let's look at the briefcase on the train." I said.

"Assuming you three don't lose your lives on the trip there." someone behind us said, causing us all to turn our heads.

What we saw was a boy, roughly my age, with pitch black hair, and caucasian skin. His hairstyle was similar to mine, except it was a little bit longer. Also, despite being in North City, he wasn't wearing a jacket, just a black T-shirt and some jeans.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Asking for my name right up front, I see." the boy said. "Unlike you did with Wolfhand."

"Answer my question, or your head will be amputated!" I shouted.

"Such big words for a non-educated kid your age." the boy said.

"Answer my question!" I shouted, clapping my hands together, causing snow to rise from the ground, creating skinny snow twisters.

"Alright, calm down." the boy said. "You can call me 'the Drybone Alchemist'."

"Drybone, huh?" I asked. "So your alchemy must effect your bones in some way."

"I see you picked that up quickly." Drybone said. "Would you care for a little sparring match? Free shot, right off the bat."

I looked around for a potential trick, but I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Without much else to do, I ran over to Drybone to make the first strike.

However, I fell over halfway there.

"Nice job, Dylan." Sam said.

"No, something tripped me!" I shouted.

"What was it?" Rick asked.

I looked where I was tripped, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Nevermind then, guess I'm just clumsy." I said. "Let's try this again!"

Instead of taking the ground route, I clapped my hands together, causing the ground beneath me to raise me into the air, which I leapt off of, giving me an aerial approach.

Once I was close, I drew my blade, and made a strike for Drybone's neck. However, that strike was stopped halfway between the start and finish of the chop.

"Oh, I suppose I should take the time to introduce you to my companion." Drybone said. "Meet the Camo Alchemist, a chameleon chimera."

"That's a bit unfair!" I shouted, as I drew my other blade, and threw rapid attacks at Drybone, hoping to defeat his chameleon friend.

"It's useless, don't you see?" Drybone asked. "You will never stop him from stopping you. I, on the other hand, have plenty of opportunity to attack."

Drybone turned his own bones into blade, and made his own rapid cuts at me. Whenever I attempted to block, a hand always pulled me back.

"How does it feel, son of Elric!?" Drybone asked. "How does it feel to be consecutively screwed from two angles!?"

"If you weren't guys, I would feel kind of like a stud." I said.

"Well, I suppose it's time for me to end this!" Drybone said, as he made a 360° swipe at my neck.

This attack would have succeeded, had I not heard an explosion behind me, freeing my hands, allowing me to block.

"What!?" Drybone asked, as I made a swipe with my free hand at his hip. Once he was out of the way, I turned to see who it was that saved me.

The answer surprised me.

"We'll take care of this invisible fellow for you!" Sam said, snapping his hand with some sort of glove, causing a spark to fly off. That spark soon became a massive flame for a short second.

"We deciphered enough of your grandfather's notes to be able to use this!" Rick said, replicating was Sam did, using another glove.

"So, you made some new Alchemist friends, I see?" Drybone suggested. "Well we shall eliminate you despite this glaring team difference."

"That's where you're wrong." I said, as I whipped my body around, causing my exo blade to clash with Drybone's bone blade. "I will not lose here. Not while you and your master are still in this world, not to mention the rest of the Chimera Alchemists."

Drybone put more pressure on his blade, causing me to do the same.

"Speaking of which, what's your chimera form?" I asked.

"I'm not like the others!" Drybone shouted, as he knocked my blade out of the way, and leapt backwards. "I am superior!"

Drybone clapped his hands together, causing the snow around him to rise into skinny twisters.

"How are you doing that!?" I exclaimed, as I clapped my own hands together, causing more snow to rise around me, in the form of even more skinny twisters.

"Do you honestly think your grandfather was the first to think of the idea of combining Alchemy from other countries!?" Drybone asked, as we both thrust our hands forward, causing our snow twisters to collide with each other. "If that was on your mind for even a second, then you need to get your head out of your ass!"

The two of us stopped our snow twister duel, as we both simultaneously clapped, putting transmutation circles on the bottom of our shoes, which we again used for a snow twister battle, but this time, we mixed in fighting with organic blades.

"You're a fairly worthy opponent!" Drybone shouted, his voice being buffeted by the sound of the twister duel in the background. "Even in your injured condition, you have the ability to keep up with me!"

"You're not half bad yourself!" I shouted, as put my blade away, and leapt onto his blade. This caused my twister to disappear, and his twister had a clear path straight towards me.

That was, until I used the circle still on my shoe to root one foot to his blade. I put my other foot on the ground, and spun around in circle. Once I had a good angle and a good spin, I de-rooted my foot, throwing Drybone into his own twister.

Luckily for him, the twister dissappeared before he fell, because his shoe left the ground.

"Now, are you gonna answer a few questions, or are you gonna run away like the last one?" I asked.

"Camo!" Drybone shouted, before clapping his hands. "We're leaving!"

With that said, he stuck his hands into the ground, causing a cloud of deep mist to appear from the snow.

"Why do they do that?" I asked, as I clapped my hands, which cleared the mist. I walked over to where he was to see if he had left a message. Indeed, there was.

"This is not over"

ON THE TRAIN

"So Ishval's our next stop?" Sam asked.

"No, I have some business that needs attention in Central." I said.

"And what business is that?" Rick asked.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed already, a bunch of Chimera Alchemists are trying to attack me!" I exclaimed. "Smart of them to take me on 2 on 1."

"You're welcome for the help, by the way." Sam said, sarcastically.

"Yeah, you'd be dead if we weren't there." Rick said.

"And I'm assuming that there's going to be some situations like that in reverse sometime in the future." I said.

"Really? Two kids are going to show up, mimic our abilities, and fight us?" Sam asked, sarcastically.

"Honestly, we'll have died by then." Rick said.

"Good point." Sam said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well, you've told us a bit about Cassy already. If we tell her what you told us, she and her family will murder you in your sleep, using your body as a meat toboggan." Rick said, causing Sam to laugh louder than the trains engines.

"Somehow, I doubt that's going to happen." I said. "But thanks anyways, I didn't need to sleep."

Sam quited his laugh, and Rick started his own.

"Alright, I'll put it this way." I said, using as psychopathic of a voice as possible. "You mention any of our conversations to Cassy or Sid..."

Instead of continuing, I extended to blade out of my arm, and showed it to them.

That caused them to quiet down.

"Much better." I said, as I slowly put the blade back into my arm. "I am loving this arm blade, you guys gotta get one."

"Nah, that's alright." Sam said.

"Unlike most people, we'd like to keep our biological skeletons INSIDE our bodies." Rick said, as we sat and chatted on the rest of the train ride to Ishval.

Well... That was exciting. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Anyways, tell me what you guys thought. Leave a review, add this to your favourites, and add it to your alerts as well if you enjoyed it.

If you didn't quite enjoy it, leave a review telling me how I can improve. See you next time, where we may receive a revisit from a two-faced girl... Assuming you know who I mean.

Bye for now!