Chapter: 1?
Authoress: Kitsune Kokoro
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me regardless of how much money I offer to pay for it.
"Blah" – Talking
'Blah' – Thoughts
Chapter One
"Brother! You were great! Who'd have thought that you could beat such a strong enemy so fast! You're getting stronger." Alphonse spoke happily to his older brother.
Edward looked at Al and gave him a soft smile, "Yeah, but I think it was just luck, you know?"
"I'm not so sure Brother. You looked like you knew what you were doing out there." Al told him.
"Heh, thanks Al." Edward turned away from his companion to look out the window. He watched as fields and barns and the occasional windmill passed by. They were heading back towards Central to see Ed's favorite colonel, Roy Mustang. Ed loved seeing Roy about as much he loved being short.
"Um, Brother? Do you think the Colonel will have any new leads doe us to check out?" Al asked, not meeting Ed's eyes.
Ed frowned. Al had been asking things like that a lot more recently. "I don't know Al. I hope so though. The faster we get another lead the less time we have to spend with Colonel Bastard."
The train pulled into the station and came to a stop. Ed and Al paused their conversation so they could get off. As soon as they stepped foot onto the platform Al continued with the interrupted conversation.
"You know Brother, you shouldn't call the colonel names like that. It's not showing the proper respect."
"Respect! You want me to show him respect! He should be showing me respect! I am the better alchemist. But does he? Of course not! He just sits on his ass, complains about paperwork, and teases me with fucking short jokes. One of these days I'm going to tell him where to shove his stupid ass jokes!"
"And where would that be exactly, Fullmetal?" A voice asked from behind Ed and Al.
Al jumped and spun around fast, just to come face to face with the topic of their conversation.
"Oh! Um, hi Colonel Mustang, how are you?" Al quickly saluted then went and stood behind Ed who was glaring at Roy.
"What are you doing here? Normally you make us haul our asses over to HQ. Why the change?" Ed narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Why must you question my intentions constantly, Fullmetal?" Roy put on a hurt tone and Ed growled.
"Because most of the time your 'intentions' are only for your benefit."
"Hm…" Roy looked at Ed in thought, "Anyway, I came here to pick you up. We're going on a mission before you go to HQ. We've caught wind of a man who may know something about the Philosopher's Stone. We are to check it out and gather information for the military's records."
Ed looked at Roy with a thoughtful look on his face. "How come we've never known about this guy before if he's so close to the military?"
"One: he's not close. He's actually about a day's train ride east. And two: he's been hiding."
"Hiding where?" Al asked.
Roy quickly looked for any eavesdroppers and, when he found none, turned to Al. "Apparently he's been hiding underground, conducting his experiments, whatever they are."
"Oh ok. So Colonel Bastard, are we going right away or do I have time to take a shower?"
Roy looked down at Ed and smirked, "Well, we should leave now but I think you should go take a shower, for everyone's sake."
Ed glared at him as he and Al headed towards the street to haul a taxi. However, Roy wasn't done.
"Al, been sure to not lose Fullmetal. There isn't a Lost and Found for abnormally short teens."
Al covered Ed's mouth and pushed him into the back seat of the taxi before Ed could embarrass them with one of his shortness defense speeches.
Roy smirked to the taxi window as Ed flicked him off and then went to sit on a bench to wait for the brothers' return.
An hour and a half later the trio was sitting in a compartment on their way to their next assignment.
"So, this guy…he lived underground?" Al asked.
Roy nodded, "Yes, he supposedly moved down so no one would find out about his experiments. He achieved that because no one has figured out what he's doing, only that it somehow involves the Stone."
"So then how did you find out about him if he became a mole person so one would bother him and everything he's doing would stay secret?" Ed asked, leaning back and closing his eyes.
"Apparently he came back up for some unknown reason."
"Besides the fact that it's the Philosopher's Stone, how come we are going? It has to be more then what you're telling us."
"Oh, it is." Roy said, not giving any indication that he was going to continue.
Ed watched Roy for a few minutes until he got fed up and asked. "Well! What's the full reason we're going?"
Roy smirked, "So impatient. The man, Dr. Fazeworth, well he went underground, like I told you, but the catch is…he went underground 137 years ago."
"Oh, and because he was seen again everyone in the town is in an uproar?" Al asked while Ed went to his thinking place.
"Exactly. The military wouldn't get involved if not for the numerous calls about seeing Dr. Fazeworth on different occasions. It seems that after every time he was seen someone would disappear." Roy told them, flipping through the case folder.
"What do they expect us to do?" Al asked Roy, watching Ed try to sneak a peek at the folder's contents.
"Either find and interrogate Fazeworth or find and arrest Fazeworth. Either way, we have to try and lure him out."
"Well, what has he been coming out for?" Al asked still watching Ed as he was trying desperately to read the case folder.
"Doesn't say, all it says is someone just up and disappeared after Fazeworth was seen. We'll have to question the townsfolk." Roy answered, closing the folder. Ed made a noise in the back of his throat as he lost his balance and fell face down on the floor. Roy looked down at him and smirked, "Aw…was the train seat to tall for you to get your puny body up on?"
Al shook his head as Ed jumped up and started yelling obscenities at a laughing Colonel.
As Roy, Al, and a still growling Ed stepped off the train they sensed something wrong. Besides the fact that there were, by far, more people leaving the town then coming, the people that were there were all quiet and solemn. As if someone had died.
"Whoa…I've been to strange places but this one takes the cake…" Ed said as he looked around the town.
"It's like it's becoming a ghost town before your eyes. Everything is going out of business," Al said.
Indeed everything was. Nearly every shop insight had a CLOSING sign up in its windows. Many of the buildings and houses looked as if they had already been abandoned.
"Is this all due to Fazeworth?" Ed asked with incredulity.
"Yes, no one wants to be here when people keep disappearing." Roy looked around for a bit then decided to get going. "Come on, we won't accomplish anything by standing around here…" He started off towards the continuously emptying town. However, they had barely left the train station before the first weird thing happened.
TBC
Well, here it is! The first chapter to the story that has been knocking at the door to my mind, wanting to be let out! Please read and review! Thanks!
Kitsune
