I'm sorry for the delay. Finals week I wrote 3 papers totaling 28 pages. I didn't have much interest in writing for a while after that.

There seems to be a little bit of confusion concerning Envy/Ravager. I mentioned Ravager (Envy) way back in chapter 3. It seemed like a good idea at the time, since Envy wasn't supposed to play a big part originally. If you remember the movie, then you should remember that there were characters that showed up in both worlds. Most, if not all of these characters, had different names. (Noah, Alfons Heidrich, Bradley). It was supposed to be my way of saying this is Envy, but not the Envy you all know.

XxxLine BreakxxX

"You can't tell my parents about this," I reply.

"Who said I'm going to? Trust me. I have a plan," Ed grins.

Al moans, "Oh no, here we go again."

Al looks more than a little nervous. "Can his plans be trusted?" I ask.

"His plans are always insane, but strangely they work," Al replies.

'I'm not sure if I like the sound of that.'

"Guys! Wait up!" Jazz runs over panting and out of breath.

"Jazz, what are you doing here?" I ask.

Jazz surveys the wreckage, "I heard about Freakshow on the news. I thought you might need some help." She holds up a Jack o' nine tails and a Fenton thermos.

I roll my eyes, "I appreciate the concern, Jazz. Really, I do. But you're too late."

'Thank God for small miracles. At least we didn't have to contend with Jazz's sloppy ghost hunting attempts. I suppose it could be worse, at least Dad isn't here.'

There's a loud boom and the wall next to the entrance collapses. Standing in front of the new 'entrance' are Mom and Dad each armed with a Fenton bazooka.

'Speak of the Devil.'

Jazz move to the door and demonstrates that the door was never locked. "It looks like you guys can handle it from here. Call me if you need me."

"I don't suppose that either of you tried the door?" I ask.

Mom shakes her head, "Of course not, Sweety. You kids were in danger. Didn't you guys know there was a ghost attack here at the mall?"

"Ghost!" yells Dad as he fires a random shot from his Fenton bazooka. The blast narrowly misses the top of Ed's head.

Al leans closer so that only Ed and I can hear, "It's a good thing that you aren't any taller. Are you still sure that we should ask them for help?"

Ed's face turns a bright shade of scarlet. "Who are you calling," Ed stops himself and slowly regains control of his breathing. "Yes, I'm sure. Danny, your parents own most of the patents for the Guys in White's arsenal, right?"

"Yes, but I don't see…"

Ed cuts me off, "Can you think of anyone better to create a device to simulate alchemy?"

"Danny? Where are Sam and Tucker? I thought they went with you," Mom asks as she starts poking at the rubble.

"They were captured by ghosts, Mrs. Fenton," supplies Al.

"Ghosts!" shouts Dad. He lifts the Fenton bazooka into an attack position and Ed quickly dives behind a mall information kiosk. Mom places a restraining hand on Dad's arm before he can fire the Fenton bazooka again.

"Don't worry, Honey," Mom says with a sigh. "We'll get them back. Let's see. We'll need the Ghost Gauntlets, the Fenton Crammer, a couple of Jack o' nine tails, Specter Deflectors…" Mom's voice drifted off as she continued her mental inventory.

"Actually Mom, I think Ed had an idea."

Mom raises an eyebrow, "Do tell."

"Sam and Tucker were taken by some psycho named Freakshow," Ed looks over to me for affirmation. I nod and he continues, "He wants us to give him the 'device' that Al and I use to fight ghosts. The problem is that we don't use devices or magic tricks. We use alchemy and it's a science that takes years of dedication, study, and practice to master. It's impossible to simply give it to him."

Mom looked like she was going to protest, but then she took a more careful look around the ruined storefront. There were statues and constructs among the debris that just didn't make sense. The mall was littered with stone barriers, ornate spears, giant hands, and a host of other things that were no longer identifiable. Is that a cannon? Dad walked over to the cannon that had an image of Ed's face on it.

"Alright, let's assume for a moment exists. And I'm not saying that is does!" Mom amended. "What's your plan?"

"Danny was telling Al and me how you two were such great inventors," Ed says.

I turn to Al and mouth 'I was?' Al shrugs.

"I need you to create a device to simulate alchemy," Ed continues.

"But alchemy isn't…But we don't even know what alchemy looks like," protests Mom.

'Nice save Mom'

Al's face lights up with a devilish grin as he walks the perimeter of the damaged storefront cracking his knuckles.

"What do you think, Al?" Ed asks grinning like the cat that just ate the canary.

"Piece of cake, Brother." Without further ado, Al claps his hands and slams them against the tiled mall floor. Mom, Dad, and I just stare in awe as the buildings are quickly repaired and the alchemically created constructs disappear. I'd seen Ed and Al perform alchemy before, but it hadn't prepared me for this. The sheer size of the transmutation was impressive. In just a few seconds, it was impossible to tell the fight had ever taken place.

Dad was the first to regain his composure. "This is great! With your help we won't have any problem capturing these spooks and tearing them apart, molecule by molecule."

I can feel the color draining from my cheeks. Noticing my distress, Mom asks, "What's the matter, Sweety?"

Ed saves me from having to answer. "Mrs. Fenton, we need you and Jack to create a device that simulates the light of a transmutation circle."

"That much should be easy, but there's no way that we can create a device that can repair that kind of damage," Dad points towards the store front, "in seconds."

"Leave that to us. We'll come up with something," Ed responds.

"Actually Brother, I might have a solution to that," Al says quietly.

"What is it Al?" asks Mom.

Al suddenly looked very sheepish. He kept his head down and refused to make eye contact as he answered Ed, "While you were in Germany Brother, I met this young Xingese girl at the library. She was very nice, and she taught me a little about Xingese alchemy."

"I'm glad you found a girlfriend, but how is that going to help us?" Ed asks.

"Well this girl, May, taught me how to do alchemy from a distance. She used knives to channel the energy from a transmutation circle created elsewhere. It's easier to demonstrate then explain." Al's looking a little more confident as he pulls a handful of small throwing knives from a sheath on his ankle. (1)

It's Ed's turn to look nervous as he addresses Al, "Al, since when do you carry knives?"

XxxLine BreakxxX

Back at Fenton Works…

"Well, this little baby should do the trick," says Dad. He's holding up a flat, circular disc about five feet in diameter. The top of the disc is covered in wires that spark occasionally and there are six poles jutting up from the edge of the disc at regular intervals.

I notice the sparks and quietly ask Mom, "Are you sure that thing's safe?"

"It's perfect," Ed says grinning. "Now to test it out. Come on Al!"

Ed scoops up the disc and a few pieces of scrap metal and heads outside. Ed settles the scrap metal in the middle of the circle, while Al places six throwing knives in a circle on the ground.

"Alright Al, let's see some Xingese alchemy!" shouts Ed encouragingly.

Dad presses a button on the disc's remote while Al creates a transmutation circle between his knives. There's a bunch of colored smoke and bright lights (and of course sparks) emanating from the disc. When the smoke clears, there's a small steel panda statue in the middle of the circle.

"I don't think it worked Al. What is that thing? Some kind of cat?" asks Ed.

"Don't be silly, Ed. It's a miniature panda statue," says Mom.

Al looks a little confused. "Actually, it's life-sized."

I chose to let the subject drop. "Now all we have to do is find Freakshow and his ghost minions."

"I've got just the thing! This is my new invention, the Fenton Specter Detector! It's like the Fenton Finder, but it has a cooler name and a place to store fudge."

Dad flips a switch on the Fenton Specter Detector and a computerized voice comes from the device almost immediately. "You'd have to be some kind of moron not to notice the ghost directly in front of you."

"Jack, Honey, I don't suppose that you tried to fix the bugs in the Fenton Finder while you were adding your fudge compartment?"

"Strange, I thought I fixed that," says Dad.

Mom turns to the brothers and I, "You kids go upstairs and get some rest. We set out first thing tomorrow to find Freakshow and his evil ghost minions."

Dad nods enthusiastically, "And when we do, we can tear them apart molecule by molecule!"

As soon as Ed and I are out of earshot I tell Ed, "You know we can't wait until morning?"

Ed and Al just nod silently.

XxxLine BreakxxX

I based this fic off of the ending of the first anime. May Chang never appeared in the first anime, but I really do love her. When it comes to FMA fanfic I usually like Ed/Roy (you've probably already guessed that, I've given you enough hints) and either Al/May or Al/Winry.