Nick's question: How come bottled water has an expiration date? (Seriously, it does. Check it out.)

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA, but I do own my own can of Cashews. Cashews are definitely the best nut in the world. (Okay here's a random thing that I almost did. Just now as I tried to type nut, I almost typed knut. Then I did the same thing with now, almost making it know.)

This chapter is really long and most chapters will not be this long. I hope you enjoy. If I am confusing you with my fights, sorry. Plus if I mess up how any of the characters fight, tell me and I'll fix it. Thanks

Chapter 10

Al was sitting in a chair off at the front of the Gym floor. All of those who were trying out for the Alchemy team were seated in other chairs around him. He counted 15 other students that were trying out as well as him. That means that he would have to beat four other students. The stands on the left side of the large Gym were quickly filling up with students who were eager to find out who would be chosen to join the team. The right side of the Gym was filled with all sorts of alchemic material.

Across the floor was some more chairs up against the wall. These chairs were for the teachers if they choose to attend the tryouts. Although three of the chairs had pieces of paper taped to them and were empty. Al already knew that was where his brother, Armstrong, and Mustang, were to sit during the tryouts.

They were not anywhere to be seen and although that made Al nervous, he knew why they weren't there. Before the Alchemy tryouts started, the existing members were to make a little performance showing the school what their alchemy was.

Al looked into the soon full stands in the Gym. He found the faces of Breda, Falman, Sheska, Havoc, and Riza, who were all smiling at him. What confused him was that Winry wasn't with them. Neither was Fuery.

Al looked around and found Fuery setting up a camera at the head of the Gym. Apparently Fuery was the one going to film the Alchemy team tryouts for the school. Where is Winry though?

Winry

At that moment Winry was running as fast as she could toward the pet store, so as to not miss Al's entire tryout. Al you better make it to the last round so I can see you tryout. Watching a video just isn't the same.

Ed

Ed was standing at the back door to the Gym with Armstrong and Mustang. They were waiting for Mrs. Izumi to give them their cue to come in and show what they could do.

Mrs. Izumi was standing at the podium that was in the middle of the Gym, in a second it would be moved out of the way to let the Alchemists spar. "Ahem!" she said trying to get the attention of the student body. Of course everyone shut up because they all knew what Mrs. Izumi was capable of, and they were afraid of facing her wrath.

Mrs. Izumi began speaking into the microphone now that she had the attention of the student body. "Students, today we will all witness the alchemy team tryouts. It will be a tournament between these sixteen students, and whoever wins the tournament will be put on the team unless their written scores are terrible. But before we start the tournament I would like to introduce you to the remaining members of the Alchemy team.

That was their cue. All three boys walked out to the middle of the Gym as to be introduced to the student body by Mrs. Izumi, although most everyone already knew them. "Here is Alex Lewis Armstrong, Roy Mustang, and Edward Elric." Cheering erupted from bleachers as everyone knew what was going to happen next. "These boys are going to give you a short demonstration of their alchemy." Mrs. Izumi said walking back over to a chair by the other teachers. Also two freshmen jumped up and dragged the podium away from the middle of the floor, so it would be out of the way.

Armstrong started the demonstration. He grabbed a large slab of concrete from the side where all of the alchemic material was. Then he threw it slightly into the air and punched it with his alchemic knuckles, tuning the slab into a cone of concrete and shooting it towards the ceiling.

Here's where Mustang stepped in smirking. He only dislodged one of his gloved hands from his pocket, and with that hand he snapped just once. Fire immediately sprang towards Armstrong's cone and circled around it, almost making it look as if the cone had red lightning springing from it.

The crowd gasped at the magnificent sight and waited in anticipation as the cone went further and further up. Several girls even let out little shrieks as they were afraid that the cone would hit the ceiling.

Ed finally stepped in looking determined as always. He quickly clapped his hands together once and slammed them down on to the floor. Then a small column came up out of the ground and grew rapidly until it caught up with the lightning cone. As the column made contact with it, there was a bright light as another transmutation occurred.

Suddenly the red lightning cone was gone along with the thin column. Instead, a shower of flower petals was floating down to the ground.

For a moment the audience just sat in aw of what they had just seen, before they broke out into deafening cheers. Mustang and Armstrong both went to sit down at the three empty chairs by all the teachers. Ed quickly flashed Al a smile before going to sit with his team members. On the other hand Mrs. Izumi stood up to announce the matches and referee them.

Al

There was no other way to put it. Al was nervous. What if Ed was wrong and one of these other people have some extraordinary talent or something? Not to mention no one knows what Kimblee can do. Al cautiously peered over at Kimblee who wasn't sitting anywhere near him, thank goodness.

Kimblee didn't appear to be fazed at all. In fact he was smirking. At that moment Kimblee looked over at Al, making Al jump slightly and turn away embarrassed for staring. Kimblee only smirked even more, with even more confidence showing on his face.

"To get started, we have Alphonse Elric and Ted Nobody combating. Remember, once you loose a match you cannot make the alchemy team, unless there are extreme conditions." Mrs. Izumi announced on the podium that had been moved to the side of the gym.

Both Al and Ted stood up and walked to the center of the gym to shake hands before starting the fight. Both had pieces of chalk in their pockets ready to begin the fight. Mrs. Izumi began speaking once again into the microphone. "I want fair fights from all of you, no permanent damage to anyone. Also if things get out of hand, one of the other alchemy team members or I will step in to halt the battle. Now…" Mrs. Izumi stopped and waited for Al and Ted to shake hands. Once they had done so she spoke again. "Begin!"

The audience went wild with shouts. Al immediately went on one knee and started drawing a transmutation circle as quickly as possible. For a second, Ted could only stand there a little surprised, but then he saw that Al was drawing a transmutation circle and had left his defenses open.

Rather than performing Alchemy, Ted ran at Al to attack, as that was part of the Alchemy sparring. Ted was too slow though. Before he made it to Al, Al was placing his hands on his transmutation circle and there was a little glow before a cage grew up from the ground trapping Ted where he was, out of reach of Al.

More cheers erupted from the stands many chorusing Al's name. He had just won his first match. One down and three to go. Al smiled at Ed who was smiling and clapping for him along with the rest of the crowd.

Al freed Ted who smiled at Al and shook his hand like a good sport. Then Al quickly fixed the floor with his alchemy and went back to sit down in his seat with the other candidates. Up next were two students whom Al did not know, but who ever won in this match would be up against him next.

The match was quick, because when one of the students tried to perform a transmutation, it proved to be too much for him, and he fainted. The other won by default.

Next was Kimblee vs. some student that Mrs. Izumi introduced as Ralph. Al felt bad for Ralph, because he appeared to be a freshman and didn't seem to know what he was doing. It was pretty obvious in that he simply ran at Kimblee, just as Ted had ran at Al. Kimblee knocked the boy out in three quick moves.

The audience screamed for Kimblee just as they had for Al, but only a smirk formed on the boy's face before he looked at Al and sat back down.

Following Kimblee's match there was five matches that all were pretty entertaining, in that all of them pretty even. Al had to admit to himself that besides Kimblee, none of the other students seemed to be that amazing at Alchemy. Now there were only eight students that hadn't been eliminated from the competition.

Once again it was Al's turn to fight with another student, the boy who had won by default. What was his name again? Al shook his hand just like he had with Ted and Mrs. Izumi told them to start just like she did with each match.

As soon as she had said start, the other boy and Al both ran to the alchemic material provided for them. Al headed for what he had seen before the competition, one of the five suits of armor. Quickly he drew his most common transmutation circle and activated it. The suit of armor then came to life, causing the audience to gasp in amazement at what Al had just done.

The other boy, however, seemed to know what he was doing. He had drawn a transmutation circle on a pile of what appeared to be metal scraps. As he activated it, the metal scraps went flying towards Al.

Nothing hit Al though, as he was standing behind his newly activated suit of armor. The other boy's eyes widened in disbelief as the giant suit of armor walked slowly towards him. With one hit over the head, the boy was knocked out. Once again cheers broke out in the stands even louder than before. Al could only smile a little embarrassed that so many people were cheering for him.

He quickly deactivated his armor and went to go sit back down refusing to look at Kimblee, who was passing him on his way out to the gym floor. Kimblee vs. Greg was the next battle.

Al didn't know much about Greg, except that he was in his Alchemy class and seemed to understand Alchemy pretty well. He didn't have a chance against Kimblee though. Kimblee didn't waste a second as Mrs. Izumi started the battle.

Kimblee and Greg both ran to the pile of alchemic material to begin their battle. Greg immediately began to draw a transmutation circle, but Kimblee didn't waste anytime with that. He simply scooped up a larger rock and chunked it at Greg.

Al was surprised to see Kimblee do something that simple. Greg was a little surprised but dodged the rock easily before returning to his circle. Greg never got to perform any alchemy though, because as soon as the rock had barely sailed past Greg, it exploded.

Al's eyes widened, in surprise. How had Kimblee just performed alchemy without a transmutation circle? Al sighed. Defeating Kimblee was going to be as hard as he had anticipated. The next two fights Al didn't really pay attention to. In the next fight he would be in, he was going to have to fight Kimblee.

Finally, Al's battle vs. Kimblee was up. Silence filled the gym as everyone could sense that this was the battle that would really decide who was to join the Alchemy team. Yes, whoever won this battle would have to beat someone else trying out, but no one seemed to be as skilled in Alchemy and fighting as Kimblee and Al.

They shook hands and the skirmish began.

Kimblee tried the same tactic with Al, as he had with Greg. It didn't work so well on Al though, because Al knew what was going to happen and he dodged and steered clear of all of the stuff Kimblee threw at him.

Kimblee didn't get fazed, and instead he almost seemed to enjoy doing minimal damage to Al. Every time that Al would even get the littlest scratch, Kimblee would get this devilish grin on his face and begin to throw projectiles even faster. Al was getting quite fed up with it all. He quickly ran to where the suits of armor were lined up and drew circles on all of them, activating them. Then it was his turn to attack.

Al and his armors all ran at Kimblee, who expertly dodged them only getting minor cuts and bruises. Kimblee tried to get closer to Al in all of his attacks. Eventually he would get close enough to Al to punch him in the face. Al was ready though, and caught Kimblee's fist before it could make contact.

As Kimblee pulled his arm away from Al, he caught a glimpse of something on the palm of Kimblee's hand. He quickly grabbed for Kimblee's arm, who kicked Al as he pulled away once again, Al then fell to floor knowing what was on Kimblee's hands.

He had tattoos on both of his palms as to let him do alchemy without having to draw a transmutation circle every time. Al was instantly relieved to know that Kimblee wasn't doing Alchemy without a transmutation circle, thus he could only do alchemy having to do with explosives.

Kimblee was a little annoyed. He couldn't beat the Elric twerp and he had even gotten scratches from the kid. He decided to end the battle fast. He quickly grabbed the wrist of the armor that was the closest to him and there was an explosion.

Al threw up his hands to cover his face as one of his five armors made a huge explosion not ten feet away. When he peered at Kimblee, he truly thought that Kimblee was insane.

Kimblee was looking at Al, who had stood back up and readied himself for the next attack, and he had a huge demonic smile on his face and his eyes were wide open with a crazy look in them. What was the worst part of it was, the fact that Kimblee's face had blood all over it, because of the explosion happening so close to him.

Mrs. Izumi along with the members of the alchemy team were all standing at the side of the gym, trying to figure out if Kimblee meant to do any permanent damage to Al. Mrs. Izumi knew that if Kimblee did try anything funny, then she would send in her alchemy team to break up the fight.

Kimblee lunged at Al and slugged him once in the face. Al only stumbled back slightly though. Kimblee still had a small piece of the armor that he had exploded and he put it up to Al's temple to explode it there. Al was too quick, however, and pushed Kimblee's arm far enough away to not get hit very hard with the next explosion.

"Why won't you just die and let me on the team!" Kimblee screamed at the top of his lungs.

Kimblee had gone too far, as far as Mrs. Izumi was concerned, Kimblee had just threatened to kill another student. She quickly signaled for the Alchemy team to stop the fight.

Al and Kimblee continued throwing blows and trying to knock one another out, not knowing that Mrs. Izumi was trying to stop the match. As Kimblee's hands and head were hurt from his explosions, he wasn't hitting quite as hard as Al and wasn't quite as precise. Therefore before the Alchemy team could even get to Al, Al had knocked Kimblee to the ground, appearing to be knocked out.

Ed ran to Al. "Al, are you alright? He asked standing next to his little brother. Al just lightly smiled at Ed in his current exhaustion.

"You won't get rid of me that easily." Kimblee mumbled from the ground. Then there was a loud explosion that filled the gym.

Everyone in the stands was silent before Sheska pulled out her phone and called 911. "Excuse me, we have an emergency." she said as she surveyed the scene before her.

Wow, this was a long chapter and it ended with a cliffy. I know. I'm mean.

I almost spilt this chapter into two, but I just couldn't. Don't know why, so sorry about the length if it bothers you.

Sorry if any of the characters are ooc. When Kimblee freaks out, it's like in the anime when he is about to explode Al.

Also, there is a chance that I can update really soon, I've finished the next chapter, but it's in desperate need of an edit job from Nick, my little sister, (Yes, I know that it's strange for my little sister to edit, but she is the one who's in honors English.) So tell me when you want me to update and be on the look out for a new chapter, as early as late this weekend. I probably will update on Sunday or Monday, tell me what you think.

Now hit that button at the bottom and review. You know you want to. : P