Hey hey, short update, not to much to this chapter but to get the story going a little more. Sorry it took so long to get this up, but I've been trying to keep up in my classes and stuff.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own FMA.
Chapter 2
Perola
Perola-7,Aug,14"Geez…what a long journey…who woulda thought the trains to Perola would be stopped because of this…" Ed said, slumping to the ground.
"Well, it's kind of nice to walk a short ways once in a while, Brother." Al said, trying to cheer up his brother.
"SHORT WAYS? We've been walking since the train station at Cordellena! That was forty miles ago!" Ed shouted, getting to his feet.
"Well, it beats walking the extra hundred and fifty miles that we would have if the trains to Cordellena had stopped as well." Al replied. "Hey, look!"
Al pointed in front of him, stopping in his tracks. Ed turns and stares at what was about another mile in front of him. The two brothers were staring at a city covered in ice. A small campground was in front of the city, many people were scurrying around in between the tents.
"There must be 100 tents there, Al! Come on; let's go see what they've found out." Ed said, starting to run towards the tents.
An elderly man in a white frock coat met the two just outside the tented area.
"Hello! You must be the Full Metal Alchemist! I want to thank you for coming." The man said, walking up and shaking Al's hand. "My my, I see you have the title of Full Metal for a reason!"
"Uh…I'm not the Full Metal Alchemist…That's my brother, Ed." Al said, pointing to Ed, who was slumped on the ground, a gloomy look on his face.
"No one ever gets it right…" Ed said to himself.
"That little guy? How could he…ah, I see. Let me guess: Auto Mail, right?" The scientist said, moving towards Edward.
"WHO'RE YOU CALLING LITTLE?" Ed shouted, leaping towards the old man, only barely being restrained by Al.
"I do apologize, Edward. But you should see how easy it is to mistaken your brother for you, can you not?"
"Well, I guess." Ed replied, cooling down.
"May I ask why you are so late? We were expecting you about seven hours ago."
"Well, the trains stopped coming out here we had to walk from Cordellena, that's why we're late." Al explained.
"I see. Well, come along. I expect you have questions." The old man said, walking towards the largest tent.
Inside the tent was a bunch of tables and lab equipment set up, several scientists were doing various researches on things.
"I thought there were only three scientists here send by Central? Why are there so many people here?" Ed asked.
"You don't think that there would only be three scientists interested in this, did you? Oh, I never told you my name. My name is Orville Walton."
"I see. Well, what's the report? It's summer, so that ice should melt soon. Then the city will be back to normal. What about the survivors?" Ed asked.
"Actually the ice will not melt. Whoever did this modified it with alchemy. The ice is nearly indestructible. It took us several hours of hard pounding with several pick axes just to get one piece off the city. As for the survivors, they've all described in detail the same person that did it. All evidence says it was Roy Mustang, except they all said he had blue hair instead of black. They also said that his uniform was fairly dirty." Orville said.
"He looked like Mustang? That's interesting…I wonder if…" Ed began.
"Yes, I did the research. William is Roy Mustang's brother. I'm surprised he didn't tell you that."
"Ha. Mustang telling me anything is laughable. All he told me was to come down here and do what I do best." Ed replied.
"I see. If you wish to question the witnesses, they're in the medical tent. It's three tents down to the right." Orville said.
"Thanks Orville. Do you have any information regarding William? Is he still in the city, or did he move on?" Ed asked.
"Well, if you'll come over here to the city map, we believe he is here." The old man said, point to a rather large building near the middle of the city.
"That's pretty big…" Al said.
"Yes. That is the…former mayor's mansion. We've been watching it through telescopes and we've seen movement inside. We can only assume it's either him or some other survivors. If you do go into the city, please, be careful. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some experiments to get back to." Orville said, turning away from the two brothers.
"Thanks Orville. We'll be careful." Ed said. "Come on, Al. Let's go."
"Right." Al replied, following his brother out of the tent. "Where are we going? Are we going to question the witnesses? Or are we just going to go into the city?"
"We're going into the city. I'm sure those witnesses have been through enough."
"Well, ok. But we have to be careful, remember what Winry said." Al said.
"Yeah yeah…She always yells at me about that." Ed replied.
"If you break that arm again, I'll kill you!" Ed said, mimicking Winry's voice perfectly.
"She may say things like that, but she cares for us, Brother."
Ed nodded as they made their way to the city entrance. Al and Ed stopped at the front gate, staring at the ice-covered city.
"Wow…" Was all Ed and Al could say.
Ed was the first to snap out of the daze.
"Come on, Al. Let's go." Ed said, as he walked towards the city.
