Hey there guys! Thanks for the reviewing! (I think I only got one for the last chapter... thanks Rayame325!) Here's chapter four too so read and enjoy, okay?

Oh... and you guys don't mind that my fics have long chapters, right? I tend to make things detailed and it takes a lot of typing... At least I don't have many grammar problems Future fics might be shorter just to let you know.

Snakes of the Element 47/Ag

Chapter 4: Running Around

By pure-thornless-rose

Out in town…

After a little argument about what they should do between Ed and Kaida this morning (Kaida won), they headed out to investigate a little more in town. The weather so far has been consistant and sunny, you could almost see anything. Speaking of which, the brothers noticed something strange about the newbie military pup. Her eyes: the right was brown while the left was hazel and gray, as if the brown had faded to that color. They also noticed that whenever she pulled up her coat sleeve or took of her coat, there would be bandages bound all the way up her whole left arm. They figured that that was where her supposed tattoo/marking thing was. But neither of them bothered to ask her yet. So they continued to look around town for a while longer.

Suddenly, as they walked past a jewelry store, a tall man with sunglasses and brown trench coat burst through its doors and ran through them as he put a hat on to help cover his face. Then one of the store's employees followed right after him yelling "help! That man's getting away with some of our jewelry! Get him!" The trio had responded to him and ran after the man as fast as they could. As they ran, Kaida separated herself from them and found a shortcut to cut him off.

"Al, where'd Kaida go!"

"I don't know, brother... but I think she's gone way ahead of us." He looked around and saw her up towards the rooftops (of the one story buildings, just to be safe on her sake) ahead of them. Ed followed his eyes.

"Good girl, that's some pretty quick thinking for a newbie." Ed grinned as he and Al continued to chase the bandit. He saw that there was nothing to dodge or try to avoid as she ran across the rooftops so she had gotten pretty far ahead of them. As long as she didn't trip, she was finally able to run in line with the quick bandit. Yet, just as I mentioned slipping and hoping that she wouldn't, the unthinkable happened.

She slipped… on a loose roof tile.

She slipped and fell off the roof. But she was able to at least launch herself towards the bandit as a last resort. So as she flew through the air and landed on the poor guy, the brothers watched the whole incident. They rolled off the pathway and into the road. They jumped up and there was a clap and an alchemic light flash. Ed stood there now and the man was suddenly behind a cage of metal bars. The man plopped down and sat on the ground in defeat. Even though he wasn't running or anything now, they still couldn't get a good look at his face. He began laughing to himself, which confused the three.

"Good job…" he chuckled.

"Huh? Good job…?" was all they could say. Ed lost his patience as to why he was laughing quietly and yelled at him. "Stop laughing, what's so funny huh? YOU'RE the one who's stuck in there."

"Heh… Not anymore kiddo…" Suddenly there was another flash of light and several of the bars had been broken off and melted into a long spear. "HAHA! Foolish kids. I'm no ordinary thief all right? I chose to steal in the daylight for heaven's sake!"

Ed responded and transmuted his automail into a blade and launched at him. The two were fighting now but neither of them made a hit. The guy was too fast and Ed was making more dodges than attacks. They inched their fight over a sewage lid. Al and Kaida would only be getting in their way and only tried to help by trying to slow the man down anyway possible. It worked and the man began having a bit of difficulties in fighting, they even managed to knock his hat off!

But this fight didn't last any longer than this. There was another flash of light and the heavy manhole cover suddenly burst up and into the air and landed with a loud thud, nearly crashing on Ed. It's landing caused a big puff of dust. Then itcleared and the man was gone. Ed looked down the sewage hole and heard and saw nothing (but he did take a whiff of the sewage stench), Kaida and Al looked around their surroundings and quickly searched through the people. But the man was gone; the only thing that has left of him was his hat.

Ed cursed silently at this and Al picked up the hat. Kaida gave up looking for him.

"Where did he go?" she sighed.

"He either escaped into the streetsor through the sewage during the dust cover." Al said as he inspected the hat. "It's interesting how he was able to make an array while fighting so quickly though…"

"It's a great way to confuse and get away…" Ed said.

"Ingenious…" Kaida murmured. "I wish I thought of something like that… Dammit…"

"Hah?" the brothers looked at her in surprise.

"AH! Oh! No, not like that! From my older sis!" She said nervously, "Whenever I wanted to play a trick on her and hide one of her things! Back when I was little too... That's all... !"

"Oh… good." Ed and Al sighed in relief.

"You have an older sister?" Al asked.

"Yeah… she's the only family I have left too but I haven't seen her in a long time though." She said in wonder, she also seemed a bit indifferent about the topic. Her eyes wandered towards the sewage lid. "Huh? What's this 'A' for?" She asked, looking at the giant "A" that had been welded across the metal lid with alchemy.

The store employee finally reached them and stood next to Kaida. They looked at him. "Looks like he got away…"

"Sorry, sir, but we tried."

"That's alright, I know. But this was the ninth time this month… no one's been able to catch the man…" He then saw the "A" on the sewage lid. "And that 'A'… it's sort of his trademark whenever he gets away with something… lately he's been stealing gold and silver jewelry… the bastard… now I have to go report this one… Thanks for trying kids…" Then the man left towards his workplace.

"Wonder what the 'A' stands for…" Ed began to think about it but Al interrupted him before he became consumed in thought… like last time.

"Who knows big brother…? But we'll have to figure out a way to find him soon." Then he turned to Kaida. "Do you think its Mr. Hameilo's client, Kaida?"

"It's a possibility…" she shrugged. Ed looked at them like he missed something… cause he did.

"Wait. WHO?"

Al and Kaida looked at each other and shrugged. She had forgotten to tell him what she told Al earlier since he was napping… So they went into a restaurant to rest a bit. She then told him of her suspicions. Asking for a glass of water while she was at it, she picked up a fork and analyzed it.

"But let me stress that everything's still too broad. That's why I wanted to look into it a bit more… maybe I should go ask Ms. Hameilo about it."

"So his clients are whom he serves right now, huh…?" Ed cited her words. She nodded. "You don't suppose he's involved now do you?"

"No, he's a busy farmer in his sixties who does his own deliveries … I don't think he can do anymore than that…" she shook her head in defense for the old man. But her expression relaxed. "But... then again… it can be easy for me to trust people sometimes… it's a fault, I know, but—"

"Wait… so we could be staying with a crazy, senile, old woman who's only acting to be nice!"

"I said SOMETIMES Full Metal! Sometimes!" She gripped on the fork now. She had also let her guard down and a small alchemic flash emitted from her hand and the fork's tines were melted onto each other like a weird spoon with points on the end. "HM… Huh? Oops…" She looked at the fork and quickly held it down in hopes that no one saw it except for the three of them."Hm… this looks kinda cool... butI better fix this…" The brothers looked on and she held onto the spork below the table again. She concentrated and there was another alchemic flash and the fork was back to normal. She sighed, "That was close…"

Then a waitress came by. "Here's your water, miss!" She said as she gave Kaida her water, then she turned to the other two. "Oh, and are you sure you don't want anything?"

"No thank you." Al replied. So she left with a… smile…(shivers, creepy!) "Phew... If she came any sooner, she would have seen that…" They nodded in agreement. OO;

"So… you can manipulate metals huh?" Ed assumed. "And without making an array too."

"Well... there's one on me so that's part of what I can do."

"You know, I'd like to see what else you can do other than spoon bending…" he insisted, she inched away from him."So how about you say we spar later today?" He was smiling suddenly.

She scowled a bit. "No… I already won our argument about that… and we're supposed to be doing our job! Colonel put us on an assignment remember?"

Silence. Ed scowled back.

"Colonel's pet…"

"Huh?" She saw a challenge in his tone. "Military bad dog."

"Military goody good."

"Oh yeah? W-well... you're some short-tempered teen with an attitude who loses it just because someone called you short!"

"Well… I'm not short…"

"You're my height and you're older than me…"

"I'm only older by about a year! And plus, I don't care."

"Yeah… say that again and I'll laugh."

"I. DON'T. CARE."

"HA. HA. HA."

"Wimp…"

"Am not!"

"Are too…"

"Don't be mean to me."

"I can if I wanted, you're just a newbie military pup."

"FINE! OKAY! We'll spar!"

"Finally! It's about time you—"

"Tomorrow…" Then she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Damn…"

As they argued, Al sat patiently. Waiting for them to finish their little skirmish. After a few seconds, Kaida became bored and began staring at her glass of water when she got a little idea.

"Hey guys… I have an idea…" She took her glass at hand. "Letting Mr. Hameilo lead us to the mystery client… How does that sound?"

If you wanna know a bit more about Kaida, or anything else, just visit my bio. Or just ask me yourself. okay?

Anyway. Here's the end of this chapter. Come back for the next okay? More things are coming together too! Oh, and please review too okay?