Chap. 11: Heroics

Amber awoke in a sweat, not for the first time, and certainly not for the last.

Getting out of bed, she went through her normal morning routine of two hours worth of work out, shower, and than out side to meditate.

It was while she was meditating that she heard Ed approaching, although he was trying to do i silently. She smirked, and eyes still closed, said, "You know, Ed? You're about as quiet a a cricket- small as one too..."

"WHO YOU CALLING SO SMALL THEY COULDN'T SEE OVER A GRAIN OF SAND?!"

Amber smiled, and turned to him. "You, who else?" She laughed as she watched Ed rage, sputtering and grumbling. But just than, Al walked up.

"Hey, you guys ready to go? The train leaves in ten minutes..." he said, but then saw Ed and paused. "Ed, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, he just has a... short temper." Amber said, laughing again as she walked by as Al held Ed back.

"So what's going down when we get to Central?" Amber asked.

"Well, normally get our rooms, and then we report of Mustang, but seeing as he's traveling with us, that's not gonna happen. Than, after that we go to the library and read for a while."

"So where is good ol' Dad anyway?" Amber said, having figured he'd be with them.

"Probably on the phone. He did kinda skip out on... well, what ever it was he was doing before he caught Winry. And knowing him, he's probably not phoned in because he wanted a vacation."

"Hm... well, I'm glad I could help him with that." Amber muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"So what are you going to do?" Am asked.

"Well, I figure about the same as you. I still need to study for the big test. Pretty sure I can ace the thing just fine, but since they'll only be accepting one of the applicants, I'd best make sure I get the best ace out of them all. Of course, since its not only the written exam that I'm being tested on, I still have room to fail to someone else."

"I'm sure you'll do fine Amber." All said reasurinly.

"So, has Mustang gotten that idea of yours through yet?" Ed ask, honestly hoping that he had. Ed agreed that it was a far farer way to choose someone. Pitting people together to compete made it clear to all that that person truly had earned the position and total they got.

"Its still being debated, but it looks like its already won their approval. Dad says they're only stalling it so they have something else to do instead of talking about other stuff." She shrugged. She didn't much care, so long as the idea went through.

Just then, Mustang opened the compartment door. He looked a bit tired and annoyed.

"Sup?" Amber asked skooting closer to the window to make some room.

"Just having to deal with the consequences of skipping out on a job and not reporting in for two weeks." He said, falling into the seat and laying his head back with a heavy sigh.

"You couldn't just tell them it was a family emergency...?" Amber asked, an eyebrow raised.

Mustang's eye twitched. "I did. They laughed and went on about how that was a lame excuse for a vacation when I have no family." He said, and then muttered, "Guess that means they still don't know about Madame Christmas..." Loader, he said, "Explaining to them that my long lost daughter had a medical issue didn't help matters."

"They still didn't believe you?"

"Oh, some of them don't, but others aren't surprised and decided to tease me about it." He sighed again. "You'd think they'd be more mature, what with their line of work."

"No offense, Mustang, but you're not much better." Ed muttered.

Roy just glared, but didn't say anything.

Four hours later, the train was pulling into Central Station. The four unloaded their things and headed to the entrance. Just before they were about to exit though, a comotion started up behind them. They looked around and found a man with a crazed look in his eyes, looking down at a woman, who was spralled out on the train tracks, looking back with fearful eyes.

"You bitch! You can't just leave me like this!" the man yelled.

"Zane... please! S-stop...!" the women cried, trying to get up, but she had apparently banged her knee on the rail, probably having broke it.

"You can't leave me! I own you!"

"That's it." Amber muttered, and stalked forward. The other three could practicly see the fire raging around her, and weren't really sure if it was actually there or not.

She walked right up to the man and before he knew what was happening, Amber had whipped her right arm out, hitting him in the brestplate, while also swinging her right leg at his feet, bringing him to the ground in one smooth motion. She was just about to drag him off when she heard a train's whistles go off, and the shout of horror. Looking back, Amber saw that the tracks that the women was on had an incoming train.

Cursing, Amber kicked the man in the head, knocking him out. She then looked back to the train and was about to jump down and grab the women, but then cursed loader when she saw that about fifteen other people had jumped down to try and help, and where now all in a confused scramble, as well as in danger themselves.

Looking back at the train, she quickly formed the right hand motions and with resounding clap and a snap that was barely heard over the sound of the screeching of the train trying to come to a stop, around the train glowed red hot, and softened, as well as the train wheels, and mere ten feet from the people, the train came to a stop, the wheels having melded with he tracks.

Amber signed, looking back at the group of people as they moved off the tracks. She heard as Roy, Ed and Al approached.

"Good job, Amber." Ed said, slapping her on the back. "Though, I think you'd better hurry and fix he train..."

Amber looked at said train and frowned when she saw the conductor yelling and complaining about his ruined train. Rolling her eyes, she performed a few quick hand gestures and clapped, and the blue alchemy energy crackled under the train and the wheels and tracks restored themselves. The conductor, who had freaked out a bit when the blue lightning like energy surrounded him, was now silent and moving back into the train to move it forward. Without so much as a thank you.

Amber frowned. "So I take down a bad guy, save a woman's life from that guys train, and then fix his train, and nothing? Really?"

Al laughed and Ed said, "It'll happen. Well, mostly with those guys. For some reason, they're never very thankful. Just grumpy."

Just then, Roy came back, having checked on the women to get the story and making sure the man was detained.

"Well, you're certainly are on your way to making the right impression..." he said, almost in a grumble.

Amber rolled her eyes at his attitude, but then smiled. "So, what was this whole thing about?

"Oh, Dea, the women, was apparently married off to that man. She'd planned on running away, and that's why she was here. He apparently found out, and got here before she could get on the train. And that's about all that she could say, but we pretty much know what happen... Uh... Amber, you okay...?"

No, she wasn't. She was pissed. Looking around, she found the man had just woken up, and was now being restrained by three other soldiers. And now she was being restrained by Roy, Ed, and Al as she tried to get to him.

"Amber, he'll get what's coming to him." Roy ground out, as he tried to keep his hold on her, which was surprisingly hard, given her extra strength with her automail. "Please, calm down?"

"Raugh!" she growled, but relaxed.

Roy sighed, "Huh, thank you."

"Let's get our rooms and go out for ice cream." Ed said, knowing Amber needed to cool down.

Amber didn't say anything, but let the three lead her out of the train station.

A.N.: Yay, another chap. down. And because I forgot to say it in Chap. 10, Woot, we've reached the double digits!

I've decided that I'ma just gonna find a way to make it so that Riza ended up having to leave shortly after Amber had gotten into surgery, because she wasn't suppose to be with Roy. When I go back and do my random editing of the chapters, I might include that, but for now, just know that she left.