(5) We have lift-off!
"Well, boys?"
Winry leaned in the doorway, twirling a wrench in one hand. There were bags under her eyes, but they were the only indicators of tiredness. She looked as bright and peppy as ever, and not to mention smug. She flashed them a 100-watt smile.
"Are you ready to fly outta here?"
"You mean you did it? You really fixed it?" Sora asked in a hurried excitement, a bit of unguarded maple syrup drizzling down his chin. (Granny had made pancakes for breakfast.)
"More or less," shrugged Winry. "There's a lot I couldn't fix because I didn't know how it worked or what it was. But I did manage to get the engine running, and I attached a new left wing out of out the extra--what are they called? Gummi blocks? Well, anyway, it should at least run now. Whether or not you can get it airborn is up to you. So, whaddya say? Wanna give it a try?"
"Yeah!" said Sora, leaving his breakfast unfinished on the table. "Let's go!"
"Oh boy!" Donald exclaimed, aslo abandoning his food.
"Yahoo!" Goofy said, then stabbed his fork through the last of his pancakes. (And while his two friends rushed after Winry, he stayed behind to clear the table and puts everyone's dishes in the sink first before hurrying after them.)
Winry, on their way to the front door, pulled a sudden about-face, causing Sora to jerk to a halt before he ran right into her. Donald, however, crashed into Sora, and Goofy, not able to ward off his clusmyness in time, tripped and fell over, landing ontop the other two.
"I almost forgot!" said Winry, "You guys still have to pay me first!"
Sora poked his head out from underneath the dog-pile. "Uh, how much is it?" he asked.
Winry did not require time to think this over. Apparently, she knew how much it would cost before she even started the repairs. "Ten thousands sens," she replied automatically. She felt a little bad about it afterwards, considering how outrageously high-priced that was. (Twice as much as Ed's arm!) But still. Money didn't grow on trees.
The trio untangled themselves and began searching their pockets. Then, Winry was presented with a dozen or so orbs, all big, white, and shiney. But despite how valuable they looked, they weren't sens.
"This isn't money," she pointed out.
"Sure it is," Sora blinked at her. He didn't know what she had meant by sen, by this definitely was munny. A lot of it, too. They were holding out their biggest munny orbs! Surely it would be enough to cover the costs?
Winry stared at him. That was definitely not money. Then something clicked in her mind, and she understood why they thought it was. "Oh, this is the currency you guys use in the west, isn't it?" She smiled; now it made sense.
"Uh, sure," Sora shrugged. "Will you still accept it?"
"Well, in this country, it has no value whatsoever. But," Winry reached out and collected the munny orbs from their hands. "I'll take it anyway. They're pretty looking. And besides, I shouldn't really charge you for a service I enjoyed doing. I'm so lucky that I got to work on a foreign flying-machine! I bet that not even all the mechanics in Rush Valley have ever done that!"
"Then would you like to see us take off?" Goofy offered. Donald shot him a worried look, but Goofy just grinned and whispered, "It won't hurt nothing."
"Could I?" ask Winry, eyes sparkling and hands clasped together in front of her. "That would be really amazing! I'd love to see it actually fly!"
"Well then, come on!" Sora laughed. He lunged for the door, then froze. "Oh wait! What about Ed and Al? Do they wanna see us take off too?"
Winry's sparkling-ness shut off in an instance and she rolled her eyes. "No. They've already left, I think," she explained, seeming a little irked. "They're always doing that. Up and leaving, without a word."
"Aw," Sora sighed. "So we won't even get to tell them good-bye?"
Winry shook her head. "Forget those two, kid. They're the ones who should have said good-bye, but if they don't care about the rest of us, then fine. We shouldn't care about them. Especially Edward, that thickhead! He's the ringleader. He could at least leave a note or something! I mean, geesh, is it that much to ask?" Winry was begining to look flustered. "But he never thinks about anyone else! He just doesn't care! So neither should I!"
"But you do, don't you?" Sora asked softly, as they walked out the front door and headed to the gummi ship.
Winry just shrugged her shoulders, but she paused at the door for a moment after Sora had turned around, then muttered under her breath, "More than you know, kid. But wherever Ed and his brother are at right now, he's definitely not thinking about me."
--------
Which was entirely untrue. Ed was thinking about Winry.
I can't believe it. Winry really fixed this thing up! It doesn't look anything like the hunk of junk it was before. And she did this all in one night? Damn, she's good...
Those were his thoughts as he and Al snuck onto the gummi ship.
Al, naturally, had been against it at first. It was breaking and entering, after all. But Ed couldn't care less about the law at this point. Spikey and his two chimeras had snagged his curiousty, but Ed perfered actually knowing things as opposed to wondering about them. And since the trio would not just tell him themselves, he would have to do a little harmless investigating.
And yeah, okay, there was something else that Ed was looking for, besides information. He had thought about how Sora had blasted him with a bolt of electricity the night before, and he realized two things: one, Sora did not draw a transmutation circle, and two, Sora's bolt of lightning broke the laws of conservation. True, Ed himself does not need to draw a transmutation circle, but he's a special circumstance and it was highly doubtful that Sora was the same. And the broken laws could only be explained one way. That lightning bolt had to come from somewhere, and from some type of similiar form at least. But there was no way that Sora's did. He must have created it out of something else, because something can't be made from nothing, but then that meant he used something lesser to make something greater. Which completely ignored the rules of Equivalent Exchange.
You can't ignore the rules Equivalent Exchange though. Not on your own. You need something to help you. Something the Elric Brothers have been searching for, for a long time now.
Sora had to have a piece of the Philosper Stone on him, of course, to pull off that stunt he did the other night, but Edward didn't bother questioning him; the kid would probably play dumb again. So why waste time? Instead, he would search their so called "flying" ship. If they were lucky, there might be a Philosper Stone lying around in there.
After explaining these theories to Al, his brother couldn't argue. Even if they were breaking the law. (Although it's not like they hadn't done so already.)
Ed climbed into the cockpit and Al followed in after him. They both took a mintue to stare at the inside of the ship in awe. It was like nothing they have ever seen before. Everything was white and shiney. Three star-shaped seats faced the glass window. In front of said window was a control panel, covered with gadgets and buttons glore. A TV-like monitor hung from the ceiling, it's screen black.
After a bit of examining, Ed tried to look unimpressed. "There's nothing up here, Al," he said, despite the fact that there was a lot of up there. He looked around some more, then spotted a door in the back. He tapped Al on the shoulder and pointed to it. "Let's check in there."
"It might be locked, brother," Al began, but Ed was already opening it. "Okay then. Nevermind."
Alphonse went in after his brother, absently shutting the door behind them. The room was small and walled with shevles full of various things. There was a round, metal plate on the floor, probably some kind of trapdoor. Or, maybe, an emergency exit door. There were no windows or flashy buttons here; just the round door and the shelves.
Ed was taking a particular interest in the shelves. He sorted through the strange things until something caught his eye. Up, on the very top shelf, was a box labled 'INVENTORY'. That sounded promising, so Ed reached out to get it...
And he reached...and he reached some more...
"Do you want me to--"
"No!" Ed thrust out a hand to stop his (not-so) little brother from assisting him. "I got it."
He pushed aside some things on the bottom shelves and used the cleared spaces as footholds so he could scale the shelves. (Al would have rolled his eyes, had his eyes not been glowing orbs in an empty helmet.) He reached the top shelf and grabbed for the Inventory box...but suddenly, the shelves starting wobbling. Neither of them knew why, but Ed's added weight unbalanced the shelves, causing them to...well, fall over.
Potions, ethers, elixirs, and other random items toppled out of their of boxes and buried the Elric Brothers. Then, to make matters worse, the floor unexpectedly slanted upwards, making the two boys plus all the items slide and crash into the back wall.
"Arrg!" Ed's angry head popped out from a pile of rather sharp synthesis items. "What the heck's going on here!"
"Um, brother? I think the ship's taking off..."
Ed's jaw dropped to the floor.
"WHAAAAT?"
--TBC--
A/N: Okay. It's offical. I am so not making the deadline. I blame work. Making me bag groceries for eight hours in a row. Leaves little time for anything else. Gah. Oh well. I'll enter what I have and hope for the best. I'll still continue writing the story, of course. As long as you wonderful people keep reading. :)
(Random Extra)(Coming out of the closet...?)
Zana: Why the long face, Axel? Is something wrong?
Axel: Well...everyone thinks I'm gay.
Zana: ...
Zana: So...
Zana: You mean...you're not?
Axel: OF COURSE I'M NOT!
Zana: Sorry, sorry. I just assumed, you know, with how obessed you are with Roxas...
Axel: SHUT UP!
Zana: Oh, come on, you know I was just teasing ya...
Axel: -sniff- I'm not a fruitcake, I swear!
(Fin)