A/N: Okay, so I haven't updated this is awhile, huh? Please don't hate me. I can explain. IT'S THE GOVERNMENT'S FAULT! No, really, this time it is! See, there's this little thing called school that the government is so hell bent on making minors attend...yeah. Throw that in with work and there ya go. Sorry to any devoted readers for making you wait so long.
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(11) Bippity Boppity BOOM!
"Now, just stand there and be still," Donald instructed the Elric Brothers. They obeyed, if somewhat reluctantly, and watched nervously as Donald circled them, tapping his chin and going "hmm" every now and then. He had his staff out, but what for, they didn't know. In fact, they had no idea what he was up to right now. Sora and Goofy had abandoned them with a short-tempered, magic wielding duck and no explanation.
"Oh boy!" Donald suddenly exclaimed. "I am right! Ha! I must be getting better at this!"
"At what?" Ed inquired, starting to feel annoyed that a stupid duck was making him nervous. And not telling them anything. And bossing them around. Just who did he think he was, the Fuhrer?
"Finding potential," said Donald, smirking mischievously.
"Potential what, exactly?" Al asked, a bit more politely than his brother.
"Targets!" When the two boys blanched (okay, Ed blanched. Al wasn't exactly capable) Donald burst into laughter, signaling that he had been joking and that the Elrics fell for it. Which did not sit very well with Edward.
"Enough with the teasing, already!" he barked. "It's getting old. Just get on with whatever you're supposed to be doing."
"Fine, fine," Donald rasped, suppressing his laughs. When he got them under control, he turned to them and raised his staff.
"H-Hey!" Ed sputtered, "I thought you were joking!"
Donald chuckled (tormenting these two was immensely amusing), then muttered something under his breath. A burst of bright white light exploded from the top of his staff, momentarily blinding Ed and Al as the rays shot through them.
Ed, hands up in front of his face (to ward off the blow and protect his eye sight), cracked open an eye. He looked down at himself and realized that whatever magic Donald had just tossed at them, it didn't blow them to bits. In fact, it didn't hurt at all. He hadn't felt a thing. It seemed the same went for his younger brother, who was also still intact.
Ed heaved a sigh of relief. It's not like they had anything to worry about, though. What reasons would Donald Duck have to obliterate them? Thinking about it now, both brothers realized how ridiculous the notion had been.
But still...if Donald's spell wasn't a harmful one, then what was it?
"That should do it," Donald was saying, "Although I don't know how long it'll last. You're obviously not natural magic users, like me, but there was enough potential..."
"Whoa, whoa, hold up!" Ed stared down at him. "Are you saying that we can use magic now?"
"Yeah, but probably only for a little bit. And I'll have to lend you some spells–"
"Are you for real?" Al interrupted excitedly. "How? What did you do?"
"I saw that you two had magical potential inside you, so I used my magic to un-tap it," Donald explained. "This way, you'll be able to defend yourself against any Heartless or Nobodies if they attack again."
The two brothers looked at each other. They had magical potential? Just a few days ago, neither of them would have believed a word of it. They grew up with the laws science and alchemy, not fairy tales.
But now, one giant key-wielding hero, two humanoid animals, a horde of dark, heart-lacking monsters, and multiple worlds later, the two could no longer questioned the possibility of magic existing. Really, they could no longer question the possibility anything. The reality they once knew now shattered, neither boy (yes, even Ed) could honestly say what was possible or not. They had to accept the fact that nothing was impossible, magic included.
That being said, with their new outlook on reality, a talking duck giving them magical powers was a very excitable thing instead of something to be skeptical about. Of course, they would eventually attempt to study it, try to figure out a method or science to it as was their nature, but for the time being, the prospect of actually using magic was their sole desire. However, Ed, trying to stay unimpressed rather than giddy, first gave Donald an annoyed look and asked him what right he had to go zapping them up magical powers without their consent.
"First of all, I didn't zap you powers!" Donald squawked, offended that he was being scolded rather than thanked. "Like I said, you both had the potential to use magic inside you, and all I did was bring that out. And besides, I'm doing you favor! Or do you like being completely helpless?"
"We're not helpless!" Ed shouted, and he would have been more than happy to demonstrate to Donald how un-helpless he was without magic, or alchemy even. Fortunately, Al grabbed him and held him back while Donald sneered at him. (The problem with these two, Al realized, was that they shared similar personality traits, which therefore caused conflict. Same sides repel, after all.)
After much squabbling and some apologizing, wizard and alchemist finally agreed to a truce, as proposed by Al, and got down to business. According to Donald, having the potential to use magic wasn't enough; you needed proper training, a great amount of focus and control, and of course, natural ability. That last one being something of a problem to the Elrics, who had never used magic before in their lives, it was decided that Donald would have to lend them some of his spells and give them a quick tutorial on the basics.
"Let's start with offensive magic," Donald said. After checking to make sure that the Sandlot was still empty and that the Elric Brothers were standing out of the strike zone, Donald waved his staff and shouted out the spell to give them a brief demonstration on how offensive magic worked. There were three levels of magical strength, he explained to them, each level more powerful than the last. He showed them, using 'fire', 'fira', then finally 'firaga' as an example, the burst of flames getting larger and more impressive respectively.
While watching Donald demonstrate how each spell worked, Edward recalled, back on Amestris, when Sora had shocked him to break up his and Donald's fight. What he had mistaken for alchemy, he knew now, was actually magic. Realizing this was slightly disappointing, because it meant that Sora didn't have a Philosopher's Stone after all. (Then again, after ransacking their gummi ship's store room and finding another world rather than any alchemical devices, Ed had pretty much given up on that idea anyway.)
Donald was saying something now, so Ed tuned back in and listened.
"So you'll have to learn one spell at a time," he was saying. "Once you master it I'll teach you another one."
"Thunder!" Ed immediately blurted out. "I wanna learn the thunder one first!" Because the first thing that came to his mind was, 'So I can give Spikey a taste of his own medicine.'
Not that he really meant that. It was impulse thought. Honest...
So Donald took him through the steps. There was more to magic, it turned out, than just waving a wand around and saying words. It was much, much harder than that. After ten tries and not getting even a little spark, Edward became frustrated.
"Do I need a stick like yours or something?" he asked, exasperated.
Donald shook his head. "Staff are good for channeling magic, and that makes it easier to hit your target, and some can boost your power. But you don't need one to do magic."
"But–" Ed began.
"No buts!" Donald, revealing another use for a staff, took his and smacked Ed in the leg with it. (Despite Ed's diminutive size, Donald still couldn't reach his head.) Ed winced, then glared at him. "You're not trying hard enough! Concentrate!"
"How I can concentrate when you keep bopping me with that thing?" Ed grumbled, but he did what his new teacher told him to. He closed his eyes and shut his mind from outside noises and concentrated. An thought breezed through his mind: maybe if I pretend I'm doing alchemy...
Alchemy. Yeah, he was good at alchemy. A friggin' prodigy. If he could perform alchemy so well, then magic shouldn't be any different! They were basically the same thing! (Except not really.)
Ed's eyes flicked open, flashing golden irises, and he clapped his hands together, letting the familiar gesture guide his magic.
A blue bolt of lightning shot down to the middle of the Sandlot, sparks and sand splaying out like a fountain, blue light flashing through the area then leaving as quickly as it came.
Donald and Alphonse stared in amazement while Ed was grinning ear to ear.
"Hey, teacher, how was that?" he asked Donald, smugness in his voice as clear as the smug grin on his face.
For a moment, Donald said nothing. Ed wondered if he was speechless at seeing such an amazing skill from someone who never used magic before. Pfft, natural ability. Ed didn't need that; he was good at everything he did, regardless.
"Wow," Donald finally said, that single word inflating Ed's ego larger than a hot air balloon.
"Amazing, huh?" he said, in that sort nonchalant way that really wasn't nonchalant, and everyone knew it, but people do it anyway when they have to at least pretend to modest.
"Yeah," Donald agreed. "It is amazing. I've never seen such a puny thunder spell like that before in my life!"
Donald had just took a giant thumbtack to Ed's ego. It popped, deflated, and released a lot of hot air. It was a good thing his younger brother was bigger than him. They repeated the scene from earlier, Ed twisting and kicking to break free of Al's grasp so he could strangle Donald, who just laughed at him.
"I'm just messing with you, geez!" Donald rasped when Ed still hadn't cooled down. The boy made a face that was a mixture of glaring and pouting, but this was only a sign that meant he was calm (yet still slightly peeved) again. Al put him down.
"You just need to practice more," advised Donald. "But for now, let's let the big guy try one."
"Um..." said Al.
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On a rooftop of one of the buildings that blocked in the Sandlot, a certain girl stifled a laugh and slid back down behind the wall as not to be seen. Watching the antics of the duck and the two boys from Amestris was so much more fun than watching Sora.
Oh, Iza had done her job first, of course. Sora and his companion talked to some the town kids about that Princess of his, the one Axel kidnaped. If the Organization didn't know Axel's current whereabouts, then no one else did either, so Sora was wasting his time. The locals didn't have any news about Kairi; they hadn't seen her once since that day. Sora continued to chat them, but Iza, who was listening in of course, heard nothing of importance. It was just small talk among casual friends.
Finished with today's report on the Keyblade master, she should have returned directly to HQ. But she figured, since she was done so quickly, why not go and check on the rest of Sora's party? They were of some importance, since they were his companions. She might as well keep tabs on them too.
Which is why she was on the rooftops, viewing the show below her, the Elrics attempting to perform magic with hilarious results. These two newcomers were of interest to Iza as well, but not the for same reasons as Sora was. And the one in the armor, Alphonse, had especially caught her curiosity. He was different, different from everything else.
It made her wonder.
--TBC--
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A/N: Guess what? The divider bar still ain't working! xP Grr. Whatever. Anyway.
Ed and Al doing magic? What madness is this, you ask? Well, look. I took thier alchemy away, so they needed to be able to do something. Okay? Just...go with it. (I'm going to saying that a lot pretty soon, lol.) More about their magic will be explained later, I swear. You dig? Good.
Sorry, but no random extras this chapter. So busy, no time. Also, there's a lot more I wanted to say, but I'll save m ramblings for the next chapter. Right now, though, I will tell you FMA fans to keep a out look for the FMA movie coming out this September:D Finally, they're bringing it to the States! Oh yesh, it is going to rock so hard. The movie hits theaters for a short time during the first of the month, and you can also buy the DVD of it on September 26. I'm way excited, even though I already know what happens. (I cheated. A few months ago, I read a summary of it someone wrote on the 'Net when they saw it in Japan. Shoulda known it come out here. Gah!) Although this story has nothing to do with the moive, I still wanted to let any unaware fanatics know, so we can freak out in excitement together! xD YAY!
Hoping No One Throws Bricks My Way,
Zana