Chapter Title: Bookworms
Characters: Scar, Ed, Scieska
Pairings: None! I can't write romance for the life of me!
Spoilers: Nope.
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: If I owned the show, several certain someones would probably not have died. Unfortunately, I don't own it. XP
A/N: Sorry for the wait; it took a while to organize this chapter, and I still have giant plot holes! -sweatdrop- Remember, if I don't update for over two weeks, feel free to poke my muses with cattle prods, or give me ideas (I always need those). Oh, and who watched last Saturday's episode on CN? It made me so incredibly happy (even though I had already read a summary online, it was a very confusing and incomplete summary) I was so excited that I squealed and jumped up and down like some sort of n00b fangirl (I don't normally do this). It also inspired me to write on this faster.
"regular speech"
'thoughts'
cat speech-
The storm raged throughout the night, and all the next morning. But just before noon it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. A bright shaft of sunlight flooded the dripping alley where Scar and Ed slept. The sudden light was enough to wake Scar, who was used to surviving on little sleep, and he rose to his feet quickly. Ed, however, was a different story.
First, Scar nudged him with his left forepaw, -Fullmetal. Wake up.-
Ed shifted away with a disgruntled -Nergjiljgkjf-
Scar nudged him harder, -I have not the time nor the patience for this. Wake. Up.-
Ed batted at the air in Scar's general direction, -Gwaydnwana-
Scar cursed his current lack of opposable thumbs with which to drag Fullmetal outside by the neck and toss him in a puddle. He certainly wasn't desperate enough to use his mouth for this task. He pondered on what could be done to wake the stubborn sleeper, when suddenly he was hit with an idea. Curling his upper lip slightly at being forced to use such an immature tactic, he stated very loudly and clearly, -Shorty-
Ed shot up immediately, -WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE GETS LOST AMONG THE GRAINS OF SAND AT THE BEACH!- Then his brain remembered that he was tired and he attempted to collapse and go back to sleep. Attempted. Before he had the chance Scar cuffed him over the head. Ed rubbed his poor abused head with one paw and yawned crossly, -Why do you keep doing that? I'm going to have amnesia before long.-
Scar glared back, -Because you don't listen to anything else. Now hurry up, it's nearly noon.- He turned and walked out of the box, Ed lurching after him like some sort of undead zombie.
The pair of them walked the streets, heading towards the Library as best they could. However, now that they were cats, the streets of Central were fraught with dangers. Dangers such as careless people's feet, the occasional car, stray dogs…the list just went on and on. And on top of that, everything was still dripping wet from the storm. Not very good cat weather.
After getting nearly run over, chased by a dog, and then, to top it all off, getting a kick aimed at him by a drunk exiting a nearby bar, Ed proclaimed loudly to the air, -The universe must really hate me.-
Scar replied almost automatically, -It is the will of Ishbala that you be punished for your godless ways.-
Ed ignored him; it wasn't like he hadn't heard that from Scar before. -I don't remember it taking this long to get to the Library. It's going to be dark by the time we get there at this rate.-
Indeed, Ed was correct. The sun had set and the moon was rising before they finally reached the entrance. But of course, they couldn't just waltz in the front door. No animals allowed, after all. So they would have to sneak in. There were no unlocked windows or convenient open-ended air vents anywhere around the sides or back of the building. Any normal way of sneaking in would require either alchemy or opposable thumbs, both of which were unavailable for the pair. So they would have to go through the front door after all, and this would be a bit more risky. But then again, they were cats. And everyone knows that when a cat wants to go somewhere, there is absolutely no way to keep them from getting there.
Now, what they did. First they slunk up the stairs under the cover of darkness, avoiding being spotted by the 24-hour guards at the bottom. Once they reached the top, Scar crouched out of sight behind one of the marble columns for a short time while Ed, being much smaller and therefore less noticable, searched around for an open window. He found one, a small window leading into the main desk area that was opened slightly. Slowly, he poked his head in and looked around and, after seeing that the librarian at the desk was busy with something, motioned to Scar with a flick of his tail and jumped in silently. Scar followed after him quickly, and they were not seen; there was some advantage to being cats after all.
After the two had gotten farther into the endless maze of shelves, Scar turned to Ed and spoke quietly, -So now what, Fullmetal? I assume that you know where you are going.-
Ed snorted, -Of course I do. The stuff we're looking for is way in the back.-
Scar sighed to himself, -Of course it is.-
After nearly half an hour of what seemed like aimless wandering throughout the mazelike library, the two reached their destination: a large row of file cabinets against the back wall. Now came the problem of opening them. But remember, they are now cats, and cats can do anything they want. However, nobody knows how they manage things like this, just that they do. So we will simply leave a gaping plot hole here for the moment, and skip ahead about 15 minutes, at which time the correct file cabinet was open, and Ed was rifling through the folders that were neatly organized inside.
With a skillful precision and speed that came with much practice, the Fullmetal Alchemist flipped through the organized folders, muttering to himself, -Let's see…Acro Alchemist…Affliction Alchemist…ah, here she is, the Altering Alchemist!- Ed carefully gripped the folder between his teeth, really wishing that he had hands, and lifted it out onto the floor. After spreading the contents out in his normal way of messy studying, he and Scar quickly began to read, searching for any way to return themselves to their proper form.
1 Hour Later…
Scar looked up from his reading as Ed let out a triumphant cry, -Hah! I get it now!-
Interested in what Fullmetal had discovered, Scar padded over, -What did you find?-
Ed waved a paw at what he had been reading, -It's all about her methods and specialties. I've found out what she did to us.-
Scar raised an eyebrow, -She turned us into cats. You needed to read that to figure this out?-
Ed shook his head, -No, no. I knew what she did, but not how she did it without using human transmutation or violating the laws of equivalent exchange. It's quite simple really. See, the basic skeletal and muscle structures of humans and cats are incredibly similar. The only differences are the skull shape and the lengths of the bones in various places. And equivalent exchange would allow for all the extra bone, skin, and muscle in humans to simply be transferred to places such as the tail. In my case, skin was transferred to cover my automail, but no new tissue or nerves were created and thus there was no human transmutation involved. And as for the fur, humans are actually covered in very short and fine hair that would have been enhanced with the hair on our heads to create thicker cat's fur, and any extra would cover the tail. My fur is thinner than yours because my hair also had to stretch over my automail. My skin is probably also thinner, for the same reason. It's really all very simple, when you think about it.-
Scar blinked once or twice, then shook his head distractedly. He really didn't care how it worked, only that it was alchemy and therefore against the will of Ishbala. He wanted to know how they could defeat her. -Yes, Fullmetal, but what else does she do and how can we fight her? And is it possible to be changed back?-
Ed sighed, -Yes, it is possible, but she has to be the one to do it. Anyway, other than changing people into animals, she is very proficient at manipulating her environment, which we have experienced firsthand, and also at conducting and controlling energy in the air, which you have experienced firsthand. That's pretty much all she does, though.-
Scar thought on this, -So there is nothing that we have not already seen. That makes things easier…-
At that moment, the gas lamps flared up, washing the two in bright light. The sudden change caused them to freeze up in surprise, and they gazed upon the stern-looking librarian with a kind of guilty, shocked, deer-in-headlights look. Ed recognized the small, glasses-wearing girl as Scieska as she began to talk to them, shaking her finger in reprimand.
"No cats allowed in the library! You better not have shredded anything, or knocked books of the shelves, or…hey, those are military records! Nobody is supposed to look at those…how did you get them out? And why are you here anyway? Oh, were you reading? How cute, kitty bookworms!" she got a starry look in her eyes, not noticing as them begin to inch away into the shelves to hide until they were almost away. Almost, but not quite. She swooped over and scooped the both of them up into her arms, still gushing over how adorable it was that they liked to read, "It's too bad that you can't stay here, but the rules say no animals in the library. I know! You can come home with me! I have lots of books! And the library just closed, so we can go right away!"
She swiftly swept the various papers on the floor back into their folder and replaced it in the file cabinet with ease before practically dancing through the library and out the front door. She turned for a second to lock the doors before continuing on her merry way, Ed and Scar in tow. Luckily, her house was not very far away, and they were there within 15 minutes. Once inside, she closed the door and set the two down, still talking. But they were no longer paying attention, instead looking with some amazement at the massive amount of books.
Ed, being the avid studyer that he was, was ecstatic, -So many books! She's practically got her own library!- he ran from stack to stack happily.
Scar was much calmer, and stayed by the door rather than running about. As he watched both Scieska and Ed, for lack of another word, spazzing, he sighed, 'Why must I be constantly surrounded by insanity?'
A/N: Yay for bookworms! I love Scieska; she's a lot like me, except I don't have a photographic memory. I am proud of my explanation of how they could become cats. I think it would work like that, anyway. Okay, time to answer reviews!
Lunatic Pandora1: Ehe…I used your idea, I hope you don't mind. I had no idea what I was going to do, then you reviewed and POOF a lightbulb. Thanks.
Scar's fangurl: Thanks for the compliment. I'm thinking of drawing a few more of some of the scenes in this story.
Shale 101: Yep, that's always good.
Risky-reaper: Thanks. :D I'm trying to find a way to fit Al finding them into the plot, since a lot of people seem to want to see that. Maybe when I'm done I'll write some 'side-stories-that-I-wanted-to-put-in-but-couldn't'.
