A/N: Yes, another short chapter. Like I said before, it's bits and pieces. And I have a word limit, so overall, the story won't be too long. Which may or may not be a good thing. -shrug- At least I'm updating quickly, right:D

(2) Operation: Fix the Ship!

The teenaged boy and his two anthro companions walked around outside their vessel, making a metal check list of everything that needed to be reapaired. So far, the list went like this:

Left wing.

Power core.

Sheild Generators.

Monitor.

Body.

Cockpit glass.

Front cannon.

Engine...

Eventually, however, the friends decided it would be easier to remember what needed to be fixed if they just shortened the list. So they did. The new list went like this:

Everything.

Now that that was out of the way, they needed to get down to business.

"Do we have any tools?" asked Sora, who was taking charge of Operation: Fix the Ship.

"Um," Goofy scatched his head. "I don't think so."

"Bah, who needs tools when we got this?" Donald said, waving his Magnus Staff at them.

Sora blinked. "Uh, Donald, your magic is mainly offensive spells, isn't it? I don't think that's going to help fix the ship," he stopped in surprise to watch Donald go over to gummi ship and proceed to bang on it with his staff. "Oh. Well, uh, I don't think that's going to help either."

"Of course it's helping," Donald rasped, giving it another bang. The metal resounded with a loud clank, making the others wince. "I feel better already!"

"Oh, Donald, you're gonna break it up even more!" Goofy snatched the wizard's staff away before he could hit it again. Donald attempted to get it back, but Goofy used his height to his advantage and held it above his head, making Donald jump in for it. But Donald soon realized this was futile, so he plopped onto the ground and sighed. Satisfied, Goofy returned the staff.

"Well, what are we going to do? We can't get off this world until we get the ship fixed!"

"I don't know, Donald," Sora replied, sitting down next to him and resting his chin on his knees. "What world is this anyway? I don't think we've ever been here before. There aren't any Heartless around either."

Their crash site was ontop a hill, green, grassy, and plain. Sereval other similar hills surrounded them, along with a few trees here and there. The sun was high in the sky, indicating that it was probably the late afternoon. A dirt road trailed around the bottom of their hill, stretching on ahead to what looked to be a small town off in the distance.

Goofy pointed towards the town. "Maybe we should go there," he said, "And find out where we are. We can see if there's a repairman there too, and get 'im to fix our ship!"

"Sounds like a plan," Sora said, jumping up off the ground. He gazed at the collection of buildings sitting on the horizon and grinned. A new world. This was going to be exciting, he just knew it.

"Let's go!"

--------

"Now you listen up, Ed! I worked very hard on this new piece of automail for you, so this time, try not to break it right away! Understood? Good. I'm charging you five thousand sens, by the way."

Edward Elric suddenly found himself paying attention to what his mechanic was saying. "What! Five thousand sens? For one lousy upgrade!"

Winry looked thoughtful. "Yeah," she said, "Nevermind what I said before. Go ahead and break up your arm as much as you want. You're making me rich!"

"Geez, Winry," Ed moaned as he reluctantly forked over the dough, "And I thought you were my friend!"

"I am, but right now, I need money more than I need friends," Winry said, grinning ear to ear. "Besides, you guys are loaded anyway. You can afford it."

"Not at this rate!"

"Well, who's fault is that? If you two were more careful, and didn't get into so much trouble all the time, you wouldn't need to get your arm repaired every other week! I keep telling you to--"

"I know you keep telling me," Ed shouted. "You're always getting on my case!"

"Well, sorr-rey for caring, Ed! Ooh, the nerve of me, being worried about my friends!" Winry rolled her eyes.

"You don't worry, you nag!" Ed accused.

Winry opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off when a gaint suit of armor peeked its head through the door. "Sorry to interupt," said Alphonse Elric, "But Winry, you have some...customers, I think. Only, they're really strange looking and--"

"Paying customers!" Winry shouted, eyes lit up with joy and brain completely ignoring whatever else Al was trying to tell her. She was sure it wasn't important. All that mattered was that she had paying customers. Besides the Elric Brothers, Winry Rockbell didn't get a lot of business in her tiny town. It was almost cause for a celebration! She left her agruement with Ed unfinished (it no longer was of importance either) and pushed past Al so she could hurry to the door. Paying customers!

"She gives me a migraine," Ed complained. Al stepped into the room and sat on the wooden bench across from Ed. Winry wouldn't listen, but Ed most certainly would.

"Brother, the people at the front door...they're weird!"

"Says the empty suit of armor," Ed joked. Okay. So maybe he wouldn't listen.

"Brother, seriously! They're not normal! Well, the boy might be, but he's wearing strange clothes. And the other two...they're definitely not human. I think alchemy must be involved."

Al said the key word. Ed was listening now, very intently.

"What do you mean, not human?" he asked his little brother.

"Exactly that. They're not human. They look more like animals trying to be human. One looks like a dog and the other one is some kind of bird. But they both stand on two legs, and wear clothes, and talk. They talk human."

Ed normally wouldn't buy this sort of thing, but he could tell Al wasn't pulling his leg. Thinking about it, it sounded like something he knew, but a few things didn't fit. Standing on two legs, wearing clothes?

"Are they chimeras?" he wondered aloud.

"That's the only logical explaination," Al said. "But they'd have to be extremely advanced chimeras. Their speech is as good as anyone's and they seem to be just as intelligent. They have animal appearances but not animals behaviors."

"But that can't be possible," Ed mumbled, frowning in concentration. Chimeras were rarely sucessful. And the ones that did survive weren't anything like what Al just described. Unless...

"Brother, what if it's just like what happened with Nina?" Al ventured tentantively.

"That's exactly what I was thinking, Al," Ed jumped up from his chair and grabbed his jacket. This sounded fishy. Something was up, he knew it. "Come on," he said, "Let's go check this out!"

--TBC--

A/N: FMA fanatics, quick question: I spelled 'chimera' correctly, right? >>; Heh heh, just making sure. Much love to those who review and correct my spelling mistakes for me! xD