Chapter Two
Date: Wednesday, August 28th
Time: 5:15 A.M
Edward groaned as he opened one eye and glared at the blurry metallic blob across from him. He blinked a few times to focus his tired eyes and the blob sharpened into the familiar suit of armor which carried his brother's soul. The pale illumination behind Al's eye holes was dimmer than usual, almost nonexistent which meant Al was in "shut off" mode, or whatever it was he called it. Ed sighed tiredly as he relaxed back into the hard bench and wondered what time it was. It was quiet on the train. The only sounds were the rhythmic clickity-clack of the wheels passing over the tracks and the occasional groan from the pistons or chugging engine as it released billowing steam into the night. Ed noticed through the window that the dimming crescent moon was starting its decent toward the horizon. Dawn was fast approaching. He must have slept a good six hours since they had departed from Lumbar station but Ed still felt drained. Their next stop was Star city, the largest city of the western frontier. According to the few tangible rumors he and Al had heard in Lumbar, they were suppose to find a doctor by name of Jonathan McCullen in Star city who knew something about the stone. Whether he had one of his own or knew how to make one was perhaps too good to hope for, but Ed felt strangely optimistic. Maybe, just maybe they would get somewhere this time. In addition, the trip gave Ed an excuse to avoid another infuriating brow beating from the all mighty Mustang. Just thinking about that guy made Ed's blood boil.
Ed's eyes drifted over to Al and he felt that familiar pang of guilt every time he looked at his little brother. Ed would travel to hell and back if that's what it took get his brother back to normal. The train was slowing down and Ed sat up, stretching his back muscles and relishing in the pops down his spine. Sleeping on the hard bench all night had made him sore all over but he would not complain in front of Al. He leaned over and tapped lightly on the hard shell of metal.
"Yo, Alphonse, wake up."
Al's hollow eyes lit up and the armor jerked slightly.
"Oh, so are we there yet?" Al asked curiously.
"Yeah, I think we'll pull into the station in just a few minutes. Now where'd our stupid tickets go?" Ed was rummaging around in their suitcase for said tickets but he couldn't find them anywhere.
"Oh…no…I thought you had them." Replied Al nervously. "Don't tell me you lost our tickets."
"I did not lose them!" exclaimed Ed as he dumped the suitcase out onto the floor and started to search through it like a mad man. "I put them in here when we left this morning! Dammit! ARG! Where'd those little #&# get to!"
"Brother your language is terrible." Al sighed, and then he had an idea. "Have you checked your pockets?"
Ed stopped searching the mess on the floor and angrily delved into his coat pockets, and then his pants pockets both front and back. He pulled out some lint, his silver state alchemist pocket watch, a few orphaned notes, a stretched out rubber band, a tiny travel sized sewing machine oil can for his automail, and a comb… but there were no tickets. Ed fell back onto the bench with a cry of outrage.
"I cannot believe I lost our damn tickets!"
"What are we going to do now brother?" asked Al. Ed huffed in his seat and thought hard for a moment. What were they going to do? Then an idea popped into his brain and a sly smile spread on his face. He pulled out the notes he'd hastily scrawled on two small pieces of paper and laid them on the bench. Al watched curiously as his brother slapped his hands together and transmuted the paper into two train tickets exactly identical to the ones they had lost. After the blue lightning from the alchemy faded, Ed triumphantly picked up their new faked tickets and handed one to Al.
"There ya go, one bona fide train ticket." Al looked at the new ticket and nodded.
"Do you think the man at the ticket booth will notice that they're not real?" he asked.
"Nah. There's no WAY he'd know the difference. Just you watch. We'll be on our way to Star city in no time."
