Chapter 14
"You're full of surprises, brother!" Al said astounded, after he heard Ed's plan. "You mean to say that Winry doesn't know you did that to your arm?"
"Nope," Ed said back. "And if she did, I bet she'd be upset. I did it in the other world when I studied to be a mechanist apprentice. The geo-magnetic differential wasn't like our world so I couldn't perform Alchemy. I tinkered with my arm and taught it a new trick. Wanna see what it can do?"
And Al nodded eagerly.
Ed turned his head and looked towards Winry's work bench.
Neuron-bio-electric circuitry installed in his body to act like nerve connectors that stimulated his automail arm controlled by the left hemisphere of his brain that manipulated cognitive thought opened and closed the cold appendence. Ed rotated his wrist and with a thought, his hand popped out of its arm socket. Electronically remote-controlled by Ed's thoughts, it stood up on his fingers and self-sufficiently jumped off the bed, free of its confines.
Al watched Ed's hand move with fluent motion, using its fingers like legs, much like spider did as it crawled along the floor towards Winry's work bench. Then it leapt onto the wooden bench. Then it leapt again and grabbed hold of the scissors that were hanging from a metal clamp on the peg board. It dropped onto the work bench with the scissors in hand. It turned, and holding the scissors with one finger by a loop, it jumped down to the floor and dragged the scissors to the boys. It then waited for further instructions from Ed.
Al's mouth was agape with astonishment. "That is amazing!" he said.
Ed breathed out a sigh of relief, seeing that it worked with 100 success, and he was pleased with it. "I know," Ed smiled.
"But how is it moving around on its own like that?" Al wondered.
"I'm using techno-telepathy," Ed said. And Al looked at him with a what-is-that? expression. "It's only a working title, but I think it's catchy. Much like the brain controls the body, my mind is controlling my hand via remote access. In simpler terms, my mind is a remote control and my hand is the receiver."
Just by thinking about it, Ed relayed a message to his hand and told it jump onto the bed and crawl into his chest. Which it did. Then it very carefully crawled onto Ed's face dragging the scissors behind it. But it accidentally let go of the scissors and it fell down behind Ed's shoulders. "Damn!" Ed cursed, and told his hand to retrieve them. It did and brought them up again and crawled onto his shoulder. His hand moving across his shoulder felt like a spider with its legs walking about, but thankfully it wasn't. Ed didn't necessarily have a fear of spiders, but he didn't like them either.
Ed's hand leapt onto his head and was now facing Al. "Now what?" Al said.
Ed hadn't thought that far ahead. His purpose was to get something for Al to cut the tape with. How he was going to use them was food-for-thought. He thought for a moment and then said, "Grab them with your teeth."
Al maneuvered his head to grip them with his teeth, the hand letting go. "Now what do I do?" he said through clenched teeth.
"Try to cut the tape with the sharp edges," Ed said. "If you can manage to make a hole and then rip the tape, you can free one hand and cut the other free."
Al nodded. It seemed simple enough. And hopefully it worked because his hands were starting to feel numb and he was getting a sore pain in his back from staying in the same position for so long.
He brought the scissors to bare on his right hand and he moved the sharp edges up and down much like a saw across the back of his hand hoping to cut the tape. But after several unsuccessful tries he lifted his head back up and muttered, "It's no good. I can't get enough pressure to cut the tape. This is really strong tape."
Then he moved his jaw slightly because he had a cramp and accidentally dropped the scissors on the bed between him and Ed. They slipped behind Ed's head. "Damn!" Al echoed his brother's sentiments of earlier. "Sorry Ed, but I dropped them." Al breathed out frustrated. "It's no use, we need to figure some other way."
What other way wasa there? was Ed's first thought. He thought ordering his detached hand to retrieve the scissors from Winry's work bench was a brilliant idea, however, he failed to realize getting them was the easy part. Using them was something else entirely. But there had to be a way to cut the tape. There had to be!
Then he had an idea. "Mind Meld with me again, Al, I'm going to have to show you something, and it might be the only way for us to free ourselves." Ed said.
Then Al had a thought. "I've got an idea, brother," Al voiced out. "Why don't you use the levitation technique on your hand to pick up the scissors and use them to cut the tape?" Al said.
That was precisely what he had in mind, but with a slight alteration. "I won't be able to see what I'm doing as I cut the tape, so we have to switch bodies."
"Switch bodies?" Al didn't like the sound of that. "I don't know," he said.
"What's the problem? We'll switch right back."
"It's dangerous. The Mind Meld technique was dangerous. Switching our consciousness into each other's bodies is equally and more so dangerous. The same Ishbalan doctor who taught me the Mind Meld technique told me about the technique, but he never showed it to me. He said it was too dangerous."
"Then I'm going to have to teach you the levitation technique," Ed said. "Meld our minds together again and I'll show you--"
Al suddenly tried to pull his hands apart from Ed's head, pulling his hair. Ed's head jerked backwards during the attempt.
Ed cringed and his face winkled up in pain as the pulling felt like his hair was being torn out from their roots. "OW! STOP IT AL!" he cried out. And Al immediately stopped. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"I had an idea and wondered if the tape would loose itself if I yanked it."
Ed curled his lip up in an angry snarl-like expression and gritted his teeth. "Well, it didn't work, did it? So you can pretty much forgot about that little idea of yours! The levitation technique is the only way."
"Wait brother, if it uses a form of Alchemy, I'd need to clap my hands or use an Alchemy circle to use it, so even if you teach it to me, how will I be able to utilize it?" Then Al had a brainstorming thought. "Wait a minute. I have an idea!"
"I hope it's better than your last one."
"Much better, brother. What if your hand carves an Alchemy circle into the floor with the scissors and then you perform the Levitation technique and use your hand with the scissors to cut the tape."
"Great idea, Al, but with one flaw. I won't be able to see my hand to draw one."
"I'll be your eyes," Al said. "Just trust my direction."
Ed nodded.
"Okay," Ed agreed, and he told his automail hand to retrieve the scissors from behind his head. He lifted his head just a little for his hand to pull them out into the open. It grabbed them and then jumped off the bed to the floor below. "Alright Al, like a seeing eye dog leading its blind master -- be my eyes."
For a moment he felt like Winry's pet dog. Who was curiously missing from the scene. He had seen him before he did the Mind Melded with Ed, but now the dog was no where to be seen.
"What's the matter, Al?" Ed asked him.
"Winry's dog, he's missing too," Al said.
"We better hurry then," Ed said anxiously. The idea that Winry's dog was anyway hurt by Envy in any manner made him so mad.
Ed had known Den ever since he was a puppy. Ed even stayed with him for a week never leaving his side after he was hit by a car which cost him his leg. Lucky for Den, Winry's grandmother was an excellent automail machinist and created a new leg for him. After he got the metal appendage he played like a normal dog and you'd never knew there was anything wrong with him.
Before seeing what automail could do, Ed had only thought machine parts where for machines. But after seeing what it could do for Den, he developed a respect for Automail and what it could do for humanity and alike.
Maybe that's why deep in his heart he felt Envy was right about how his automail arm and leg made him feel. That they were his security blanket, in a way. And without them he would be naked. They had been a part of his body for so long - nearly six years now - that he didn't miss what he had lost.
In fact, they were a constant reminder of his failure attempt to use a forbidden Alchemy spell to bring back his mother from the dead and what it cost him and his brother. And he wanted to keep remembering.
"I'm ready, Al," Ed then said, and Ed readied his automail hand.
Al told him how the scissors should be positioned in his automail hand to carve an Alchemy circle in the floor and Ed mentally positioned his hand properly. Then Al carefully directed him, carefully choreographing every movement to make the Alchemy circle. Soon the circle was done, and Ed ordered his hand to drop the scissors. Then he told his hand to lay flat on the circle and through techno-telepathy, the circle beneath his hand erupted in a white glow, filling all the edges of the circle. And his hand began to levitate in the air.
But then it suddenly dropped and hit the floor with a thud. But it made a quick recovery and it got back on its fingers and adjusted its position towards the boys.
"What happened?" Al asked.
"I lost my concentration," Ed said. "I keep thinking of Winry."
"Concentrate Ed, Winry's life depends on it."
To be continued...
