Untitled Fanfic With Chapters
It was that afternoon, while getting his arm repaired at the Rockbells', that Ed received the phone call. Major Armstrong picked up.
"Tai-san!" came the first reply. "No, sir…. No, sir. I see. Yes, sir." He hung up and entered the living room as Winry adjusted the last screw on Ed's right arm. "Done!" she proclaimed, gathering up her tools. Ed stretched his arms above his head and acknowledged the Major. "Hey, Major," he said plainly.
"Ed. You have another mission, immediately," the Major said, in an all-business tone.
Ed looked some what interested, standing up and pulling his black jacket over his shoulders. "What is it this time? Bank robbers? A mass murder?"
"A school. Full of children, every one of them scared for their lives. Teachers, too. It's being held up by a newly discovered group of unlawful men."
Ed retrieved his white gloves off the small table beside him and buttoned them onto his wrists. "I'll take 'em down, every last one of 'em!" he said, miming a transmutation. Winry, who had packed up her tools and was leaving the room with her toolbox, shot him a cold warning glare.
"Of course, I'll do it carefully," he called after her reassuringly. "I won't be reckless at all, and—" he paused to roll his eyes. "Yeah, right. I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of them."
….
Ed rested his chin in his hand, bored. "Hey, Major," he mumbled, surveying the familiar scenery as it scrolled past him through the windowpane. "Where the heck is this train going, anyway?"
Major Armstrong stroked his mustache and replied, "Lior. After the war, they couldn't afford as high security as they used to have, so opposing forces could easily enter the city. You know, analization is a talent passed down from the ancestors of the Armstrong family…"
As the Major droned on about family his family history, Ed was doing some analization of his own. Lior, he thought. So that's Rose's town. The last time I was there was for that whole thing with Cornello. Man, that guy is—
The train came to an abrupt stop. Ed was confident this did not mean they had arrived at the next station, especially because one of the luggage articles had fallen off the shelf and knocked off his brother's head.
Ed let out a painful grunt. He had fallen clear out of his seat and lay crammed in the aisle between two rows. Opening an eye, he sat up and clung to the wall for support. The train was tilted at a peculiar angle, with the front somehow sloping downwards, and the back could be seen through the window. It had been making a turn.
Ed attempted not to step on any of the other fallen passengers (or on his brother's head, which had skittered across the floor) as he directed himself back towards his window. He glanced at Major Armstrong, who, miraculously, was still in his seat during all this excitement.
A few strange pink-pigmented sparkles surrounded the Major's head as he spoke. "You brothers sure aren't stationary. You know, balance is another trait handed down from the descendants of the Armstrong family—"
But Ed had tuned out long ago. He was now forcing the hinges of the train window down, and having one heck of a time doing so. "Niisan," Al uttered, retrieving his head and locking it back in place. "Please be careful!"
Ed's body language strongly suggested that he wasn't taking heed to Al's warning. "These guys are..." he breathed. From the window, Ed could see a tremendous stone wall. The front of the locomotive was mashed into it head-on.
A man stood beside the wall, on top of what looked like a wide transmutation circle around the middle of the railroad tracks.
"These guys are alchemists!"
….
End: Chapter 1
There's my little original-yet-not-original story for you. Of course, that's only the beginning! More is to come. Please tell me what you think of the intro to what will become a multiple-chapter saga. Or… not.