FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST PART IX:
On to Central!
I sighed and leaned against the back of my seat, the train whistle blowing as we headed off towards central. Al, sitting in front of me on the other seat, was amusing himself by playing solitaire using a deck of cards.
It was going to be a long ride to get to Central, and it was getting more boring by the minute.
"So Al…where do you think this Mustang guy is, anyway? He never exactly gave us directions."
"Maybe there's someone else waiting for us at Central, brother. Maybe he's calling them now to let them know to look for us."
"Yeah, maybe you're right… but I swear, if he calls me your "little brother" again, I'm gonna –"
I was suddenly interrupted by a huge group of screams coming from the train car in front of us.
"What the!... What was that, brother!"
"I don't know Al….but it sounds like we have ourselves here a hostage situation…"
Suddenly the doors to our car flew open, and standing there were 3 guys, one holding a bag obviously filled with jewels, the other two holding knives. One of them stepped forward and grinned slyly.
"Okay, you folks! Put all the jewels and other valuables here, unless you wanna get sliced!"
I stood up from my seat, and smiled at him.
"Oh yeah? What makes you think that a threat like that frightens me? C'mon, I'll fight you if you really want my valuables".
The 3 guys started laughing loudly, tears streaming from their faces.
"Oh MAN! That was a good one! A shrimp like you! How could you possibly hurt us? Now GET ON THE GROUND!"
…SHRIMP! As I bent down and kneeled on the floor, I whispered to Al.
"Al…very…slowly…hand the deck of cards to me, and then back up…"
"What?...uh, ok…"
He handed me the deck of cards he had previously been using, but one of the men pointed the knife at him.
"Hey, I said GET DOWN! You wanna get stabbed?"
I made my move.
"NO, but how about you SIT A SPELL!"
I placed my hands together and touched the deck of cards, and they changed into a pile of throwing knives. I hurled 6 of them at the men, pinning one of them to the walls.
"Br…brother! How did you…do that without a…transmutation circle!"
I realized that I hadn't used a circle. How was that possible? But it didn't matter at the time, and I quickly hurled another knife at one of the other men, knocking his knife out of his hand.
"Jesus, guys! This kid's an ALCHEMIST! RUN!"
The men started towards the door, but while they were contemplating it, Al had drawn a circle on the door and made a siren from some of the material.
"NOW, AL!" I shouted, as I covered my ears.
Al activated the siren, which pierced the robbers' ears with a high pitched screech.
"AUGH!" they shouted, and they fell to the ground, wincing, their sense of balance totally thrown off. Al went over and took the remaining weapons from them, and handed them to me.
"Now guys, are we going to be good little robbers and stay down until we get to Central? Or am I gonna have to use these again?..."
"NO! NO! We'll stay! We'll STAY!"
I smiled.
"That's more like it."
Al and I sat back down, the robbers sprawled out on the floor.
I smiled once more.
"Hey Al, how about a round of Old Maid?"
Al nodded, and took out another deck.
And we played cards, the train whistling loudly as we rushed off through the mountains and plains.
END OF PART IX
COMING SOON:
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST PART X:
Where oh Where is Mustang?
So we're finally here, huh? Now how are we gonna FIND the guy!