The Other Side of the Gate, And Across an Ocean

Chapter 1 "Knock out and...The Box"

Edward Elric had been battling all night with the humonculi who were always strong and they would never weaken. Envy, the one who was rumored to be Edwards older sibling came up from behind, transformed his arm into a lead rod, and Edward was taken down.

All went black. Ed couldn't feel anything and his hearing was muffled. He saw the Gate approaching him and it opened like a gaping hole ready to gulp him in. Trying to scream he turned around but he fell and he was sucked into the cold void.

When his senses came back, he was cramped tightly in a small space and drenched with salty water. He tried to move but he was stuck. "What the heck?" he thought to himself.

"Al?" he tried to yell, but it came out a squeek.

"Brother?" Al replied. Ed heard his brother and smiled. As long as they were together they'd be okay. That's what they always believed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah! I'm fine if I weren't so cramped! Where are we?"

"On a ship of some sort..."

"Oh, GREAT! I'm stuck here thinking I was dead and I thought the road to Heaven and Mom was COMFORTABLE!"

"Not that kind of ship, Brother. A real ship that's going over a a really big lake that everyone calls an ocean..."

"What the heck? So where are we, Al!"

"I don't know. People mentioned something called Germany, then they started to put us in shipping boxes then onto a ship like we were being transfered to another place."

"Good lord..."

Around midnight on the third day, a storm tossed the ship around so vigorously they were tossed from one side of the ship to the other. Edward was shrieking the whole time.

"I FEEL LIKE THE BATTER TO A BATCH OF MUFFINS MOM WOULD WHIP THE CRAP OUT OF! WAAAAH!"

"Brother! Just stay calm! We're not going anywhere! We're tied to the ship!" Al said while flying to the rail. Ed just kept on yelling until he was hoarse and tired. After a while, Ed passed out in his tight little crate and Al just sat still hoping by some horrid chance his brother broke his neck on one of the poles the crate rammed into.

The storm had thrown them off the ship and into the sea. They drifted for some time until they came to a sound. Someone picked them up and put them on the dock thinking it was just something from a shipwreck far out in the ocean. The man intended to keep and take the crates home later. I'm afraid he never got the chance to see what was inside, but he was able to keep the boxes.

They were on the shore of the Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington. they had drifted to America!

At the docks of the Puget Sound they waited for people to notice them. No one came.

"Brother, can you transmute where you are?" Al asked, hoping his brother was alive.

"I think...yeah, I can, why?" Ed replied. He had swallowed some sea water during the storm and due to the small space he was in, he couldn't cough it up.

"Get your blade out and break out of the small box your in."

"SMALL! SMALL! WHY AM I IN A SMALL BOX!" Ed shrieked as loud as he could and the box bounced everywhere in his frustration. All Al could hear was muffled screams of frustration.

"Calm down, Brother! You'll make everybody look at us!"

"You're right, Al..." Ed huffed and there was a big bang as the box splintered and flew everywhere and Edward burst out. He opened his eyes and his jaw dropped.

"WHERE ARE WE? What the heck is this place!"

A girl walked past as an airplane flew over head.

"This is Seattle!" she said with a smile. "I take it you were on the wrong ship, yes?" she giggled.

"Dang right, young lady." Ed said, frustrated. "I wasn't supposed to be on a ship! Let alone be treated like cargo!"

The girl swore she had never heard this kind of accent before. It was like a combination of German, English, Japanese and American. Although she just passed it off as being hre imagination because he was flustered.

"Thanks for the help, ma'am, but we'd better getting home, Alphonse." Ed walked off and Alphonse followed him.

Alphonse? That pipsueek in the red jacket called the strange guy in a suit of armor Alphonse...could he...no...that's impossible. she muttered to herself when they walked off.

She got a ticket to the top of the Space Needle and looked out over the rail when a young man shorter than her by an inch or two walked up and asked,

"Excuse me, but would you happen to know where Rizenbul is?"

He was blonde and his eyes were an unnatural color: they were gold.

"Rizenbul?" she asked curiously.

"You know, a few days west of Central?"

"What's your name?" she asked, making the mistake of answering his question with a question.

"I'd rather not say right now..." he said uneasily.

"That's okay. Umm, I don't know where those two places are, but I can tell you this: I've heard of them in a story about two alchemists. But the thing is, it's hard to tell if you guys are masquearding or just...real..."

"Who do you think we are?"

"Edward and Alphonse Elric, but I seriously doubt it. If you are, you're far from home."

"How...how do you know my name? I've never met you! And you've never met me...or my brother."

"You're okay." she laughed. "It's the weekend of a cosplay convention. If you two keep a low profile and act like you're cosplayers, you'll get along just fine."

"What's a...cosplayer?" he asked.

"Oh, you wouldn't know I guess. It's a person who dresses up as a fictional person for the fun of it."

"Fictional? You think we're dressed up like someone who isn't real?"

"Well, kinda... In our world, you guys are fictional characters from a television series called 'FullMetal Alchemist'."

"Whoa...what the heck is going on around here?" Ed grumbled while looking over the rail of the Space Needle.

"Brother, just listen to her. She might actually know what she's talking about."