"Write sometime!"
"Don't get into too much trouble!"
"I hope you come back alive."
Iris smiled at all of her friends from the train window.
"I'll come back soon enough," she replied, and they all nodded their heads. The train let out a puff of smoke and a long whistle. The three smiled sadly and waved. Iris waved back as the vehicle chugged away.
"I'll be back, Augustine. I'll be back, my hometown."
•••
"Man, what am I going to do?" the Colonel whined. "I have a date later. If I get off work late because the General decided to take a vacation, I'll blame all of it on him." Each one of his subordinates rolled his eyes. His second lieutenant Breda muttered something, but Mustang didn't hear it, nor care.
"Well the General will just have to sacrifice himself so we can wrap this up quickly."
"Seriously, Colonel?" Sergeant Fuery scolded. "Here's the passenger list." Roy took the list from him and skimmed through it.
"So he really is on the train with his family, eh?" the other second lieutenant Havoc butted in.
"Jeez. He knows things in the East are unstable, and he still chooses a few days off here?" The raven haired alchemist looked over the list a final time and grinned once he saw two names.
"Wait... I think we can go home earlier than planned today!"
"What do you mean by that, Colonel?"
A smug look cast over his face. "Both the Fullmetal Alchemist and See-All Alchemist are onboard."
Sure enough, Colonel Mustang was right. There, sleeping on the train, was Edward Elric. In the next car over was Iris King, trying to calm down the hostages. She had already fought the shooters in the car. Being a State Alchemist, she handled them easily. In all honesty, she thought it was fun, especially with the adrenaline kicking in. Still, she had other things to do.
'There has to be more thugs than this in other cars,' she thought. 'It would be better if I checked.'
After one last reassurance that the passengers were safe, she carefully walked out to the small passageway into another car.
Before Iris could open the door, a criminal busted it open. His eyes landed on her immediately, and he started shooting his gun rapidly. She let out a yelp of surprise and ran up the ladder to the top of the train.
Down in the car below her lay a sleeping Ed. There was an armed man right in his face, yet he did nothing but snore.
"How can this brat sleep through this?" he asked, poking him in the cheek with his gun.
"Wake up, you little runt!" At the words 'little' and 'runt,' the blond alchemist immediately woke. He clasped his hands together on the gun and transmuted it into a harmless trumpet.
"What the hell?" The hijacker had no time to think before Ed kicked him square in the face. He had knocked him out, but there were more gunmen than just him.
"We were told to kill anyone who didn't comply. I don't want to shoot a kid like you, but..."
"Let's just calm down," a suit of armor said, taking the gun from the man's hand. Ed didn't listen to his brother and kneed the assailant in the face.
"Don't call me a runt! Or a dwarf! Or a short person! I'm not as short as you think!" Alphonse had to hold back his brother before he mauled the man who called him short.
"Brother, stop."
Ed muttered some curses. "Fine, but who are these guys anyways?"
"T-there's two in the engine room, four in the first class car with the General, and four in the coach keeping guard in different spots."
"And the rest?"
"That's it, I swear!"
"Alrighty then, if you say so. I'll go above. Al, take the others from below, 'kay?"
"Got it." With Alphonse's help, Ed managed to get on the roof of the train.
"Well then, let's get this over with." He walked a few steps when he saw someone else in the distance on the train's roof.
"There's someone else here?!" Ed thought aloud. His yell made the other person whip their head around to see where the noise came from. She walked towards him and Ed was surprised to see that it was a girl. Their faces mirrored one another's; confusion and wonder.
He stared at her. She was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt under a vest sort of thing. Her hands were covered by gloves with transmutation circles. She wore black leggings and leather boots. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, but her bangs were loosely around her face, whipping everywhere with the wind.
"Who are you?" They both asked in unison. "No, who are you? Quit doing that!"
"Okay, okay," the boy put his hands up, "I'll go first. I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist!" He did a small victory pose like a hero from a comic book.
"You're a State Alchemist, too?" the girl questioned. Ed finally noticed the shiny pocket watch with the dragon emblem on her.
"I'm Iris King, the See-All Alchemist."
"Why are you up here?"
"Well, the whole train is being hijacked, if you haven't noticed," Iris deadpanned.
"I did. That's why I'm up here."
"Well I didn't really ask for any help." She walked away carefully to not fall off the train.
"Hey, wait!" Edward called and caught up with her.
"Quit following me!" she yelled. She just wasn't in the mood. "I'm seriously going to kick you off-" Ed put a gloved finger to her lips. She smacked his hand away. "What the-" He made a shushing noise and they listened for a minute.
"What is it?" she whispered loudly, impatient. As if to answer, gunshots pierced the silence.
"Wah!" Ed grabbed Iris and they fell onto the rails. After the shooting ceased, she opened her eyes that she didn't even realize were closed. She looked to Edward who was staring at her expectantly.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He nodded. She hadn't realized he was carrying her until he put her down. Using themselves to hoist each other up, they made it back on top of the train.
"Hey, look! The engine room!" Iris shouted. Sure enough, The control room was right under them. Ed put on a devilish grin and she backed away from him a bit; his grin was creeping her out.
"Let's go."
"Go where?" Ed didn't answer her, but instead picked up a bullet from the ground. He threw it into the engine room window and waited silently.
"A bullet? Where'd that even come from?" one of the criminals asked. Ed took Iris' wrist and they jumped through the window. She yanked her wrist away from his grasp, giving him a glare that said, 'don't touch me'.
"What the hell are two kids doing here?" one asked, and got a punch to the face from Ed. Before the other one could talk, Iris kicked him in the throat. The other engineers took care of the two remaining hijackers.
"Thanks," the men acknowledged, and the alchemists smiled and nodded back. Then Iris and Ed proceeded to climb back up a ladder to the rooftop. As soon as they got up, a large gunman was waiting for them.
"Huh? There's two? Oh well." They evaded the bullets he shot and fell into the tender car. Edward transmuted a cannonball, which scared away the man.
"What are you doing to the tender car?! That's got water and coal for the entire train!" the engineer yelled from the window.
"Sorry!" Iris yelled back. "Ed," she scolded, hitting him upside the head. "Say sorry!"
"R-right! Sorry!" Ed then thought for a minute. "Tender, eh?"
A sly smile cast over his face.
"I've got an idea."
"Oh no," she groaned. "He's got an idea."
"Hello? Helllooo? Is this thing even on?" Ed's voice boomed through the speaker phone. In the background you could hear Iris' voice saying, "Yes, it's on, you idiot."
"Alright. Calling all hijackers! We recaptured the engine room and rear cars. This is the only one left. Lay down your weapons and let the hostages go. If not, then we'll have to play the hard way.
"We're asking nice enough," the girl added. "Surrender now, or-"
"What a joke!" Bald laughed, cutting her off. "I don't know or care who you two are but as long as we have hostages, we will never back down!"
"Alrighty then~!" Iris chimed happily.
"Passengers, take cover, quick!" Ed yelled. He them transmuted the wall into a water pipe. Bald and his crew realized what it was, but it was too late.
"Run for it!"
Water instantly flooded the car, drowning the hijackers.
"Not such a bad idea, huh, Iris?"
She scoffed. "It was a terrible idea. I just went along with it." Ed huffed, then muttered a 'whatever'.
"Anyways, time for the real show." Ed ran inside where Bald was. Most of the water had leaked out by now. Iris followed behind Ed to see his right arm turn into a blade.
"Oh. So that's why they call him that..." Iris muttered and watched the two fight. The man also had a mechanical limb. She watched the short blond cut through the man's arm.
"You bought the cheaper kind, you know," Ed said as the metal limb fell to the floor. The train came to a halt. Alphonse swung at the man's head from behind and he went unconscious. Ed gave his brother a thumbs up.
"Nice, Al."
Everyone eventually boarded off the train. Military men were at the station, and arrested Bald and his team.
"Hey Fullmetal, See-All," Mustang greeted.
"Hey Roy."
"Oh. Colonel, it's you," Edward muttered in an unhappy tone.
"What's wrong?" Mustang teased, smirking. "Still not warming up to me?"
"Roy, quit it already." Iris said.
"Do you two know each other personally?" Al asked quietly, noticing their first name basis.
"Sadly," Roy responded playfully, which got him a glare and a shove from Iris.
"Yeah, we're related."
"You're his sister?!" both of them yelled out of surprise.
Iris laughed. "Yeah, legally. We're steps, though, not related by blood. I would suffocate if we were any closer." Roy snorted at her comment.
"Why don't you have the same last name?" Ed squinted his eyes in suspicion.
"Well, legally my name is Iris Mustang, but I like it better as Iris King." With a faraway look in her eye she smiled fondly but sadly, as if remembering something bittersweet.
"So, how was the train ride with the short one?" Roy asked her.
"I am not short, dammit!" Ed boomed. She laughed.
"Well, he's-" she got cut off by shouts of 'stop him!', 'he's loose!', and 'look out!' Bald had escaped his restraints.
Mustang sighed. "I'll take care of this." Bald ran at the Colonel, but a simple snap of Roy's fingers was all that was needed. Fire ignited from the friction, literally blowing the man away.
"I took it easy on you," he said. "Next time I won't. I am the Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang. Never forget it."
"Woah..." Ed and Al gaped.
Iris sighed. "That's my step brother for you. Showy as always..."