"The Fullmetal Titan"
By cdc100
Summary: Edward Elric is a new resident at Jump City. When the city is in danger, the Teen Titans must turn to the Fullmetal Alchemist for help.
Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.
Chapter Two
"The Mysterious Edward Elric"
Edward Elric left his apartment dressed in a business suit, wearing a pair of black gloves, and carrying a matching briefcase. He went to the elevator and pressed the "down" button. When the door opened, he entered, and then the door closed.
As soon as he heard the hum of the elevator, Cyborg tiptoed over to Elric's apartment and slid an encrypted card through the slot where the key would go. The door's lights flashed green, and the lock clicked. Cyborg entered the apartment and looked around. The apartment had posters of strange patterns on the walls. They were mainly circles with strange patterns inscribed. Not only that, but the kitchen counters had flasks all over the place with Bunsen burners running under them. Some were round, some were square, some were tubular, some were green, some were red, some were pink, and some were black. Seeing all of this, he opened his communicator and made a call to the others.
"I've found something in the kid's apartment."
"What is it?" asked Robin.
"See for yourself."
He placed the communicator so that the others could see the strange patterns on the wall, and the flasks on the counters.
"Those look like they're meant for some kind of ritual," said Robin.
"Dude!" said Beast Boy. "This guy's into the occult!"
There was a sigh from Raven through the communicator.
"The last time I checked, the occult didn't involve heptagons or hexagrams. He's probably just Jewish or something," she said.
"You really believe that?" asked Beast Boy.
Raven sighed again.
"No."
"Photograph anything you think might be useful, Cyborg," said Robin. "Have you found a good place to set up the camera?"
"Not yet," responded Cyborg, snapping a picture of one of the patterns. He subsequently surveyed the room, looking for any place that Elric was least likely to notice. He noticed a small crevice in-between two of the counters. He placed the thumbnail-sized camera there, and spoke once again into his communicator.
"Camera planted."
"Okay. Return to the Tower," commanded Robin.
Elric came out of the apartment complex, and adjusted his tie. He then walked to the edge of the sidewalk, his briefcase swinging slightly as he walked. He hailed a cab, which promptly stopped in front of him, and he got in.
When she was sure he was in the vehicle, Starfire left the roof of the building and flew overhead. She made sure to fly high enough that he wouldn't notice him, but low enough that she could survey his actions. She noticed a frown on the boy's face as watched him. He didn't really seem to show any malice at all. As Raven said, he just seemed a little gloomy; as though he had lost a piece of his soul.
After a while, the cab came to a stop in front of the café, where the boy got out. He paid the driver, and walked in, which was Raven's cue to move. She came in, dressed in a pair of black jeans, a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, and black fingerless gloves. She had borrowed one of Cyborg's hologram generators, which disguised her skin and hair color. She didn't even recognize herself. She found the boy at the front counter ordering his beverage. After he was finished, he went to a table and sat down. Raven went to the counter and ordered.
"How may I help you?" asked the man at the counter.
"I'd like a small French vanilla cappuccino, please."
The man swiftly made up Raven's drink, and placed it on the counter in front of her.
"That'll be $2.35, please."
Raven rummaged through her pockets and gave the man at the counter three dollars.
"Keep the change."
She picked up her cappuccino and went to the table to find the boy reading a newspaper.
She looked around the café, and to her surprise, every other table except for Edward's was full. She tapped on the table a couple of times, and got his attention. When the boy looked up, she saw that his eyes were a golden color; a very unusual eye color.
"Excuse me," she asked. "Do you mind if I join you? All of the other tables are full."
"Not at all," replied the boy, indicating the seat in front of him, which Raven took. He looked at her from behind the newspaper, and then continued reading it.
"So, what brings you in here?"
"I needed some place to have my morning coffee. I'm Rachel, by the way. Rachel Roth."
The boy shut his paper for a few seconds, and extended his hand.
"Ed. Edward Elric."
"Rachel" took his hand, and shook it.
"Nice to meet you, Ed."
"Nice to meet you, too, Rachel."
Ed folded up the paper and set it down as a person came over to their table with his coffee.
"Thank you," said Ed.
The man nodded and walked away, after which Ed took a sip from his coffee.
"So, how long have you lived in Jump?" asked Raven.
"About a month or so. I just started doing work at Wayne Enterprises."
"What kind of work?"
"I do experiments with fuels and other kinds of chemicals."
Raven nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"Sounds hard."
"Yeah, but on the upside, it pays pretty well."
Ed went back to reading the paper, and after a few minutes, Raven spoke again.
"So… where are you from?"
"Well, I'm not from around here. Let's just put it that way, and leave it at that."
"What's the matter? You don't sound too happy about your home."
"I just really miss it. I really want to go back there soon."
"Is it expensive to go there?"
Ed chuckled.
"I… guess you could say that."
"Well, as high as your job pays, you'll probably be back home in no time."
The boy let out a sad smile.
"I wish that were true. It costs a lot more than I could ever give."
Although puzzled by his statement, Raven didn't get the chance to inquire into it, as at that moment, Ed stood from his seat, folded up the paper, took the last sip of his coffee and walked back out the door. When he stood, she couldn't help but notice how short the boy was. He couldn't have been more than 4'10", or 5 feet.
"I'm glad to have met you, Rachel," said Ed, exiting the shop.
Raven opened her communicator.
"Elric has left the shop."
Upon hearing this, Robin pulled out a grappling hook from his utility belt, and fired it at a building that Ed was passing, and as the boy walked, Robin followed, shooting another grappling hook when necessary. At one point, Ed looked up, and Robin was sure he had spotted him, but Ed just shrugged and continued to walk toward Wayne Enterprises. When he finally got to the building, Robin sat himself on a loft outside the window of the laboratory where Ed worked.
The boy wonder remained sat by the window for a good few hours surveying Ed's actions. When Ed came to the lab, he put on a lab coat, and started carting materials from the same supply room seen on the tape to a containment room on the opposite side. Every hour or so, he would see something that looked like electricity crackling through the window of the room. About four hours into his surveillance, Robin was getting severely bored, but that didn't stop him from keeping his watch.
"Robin?" said a voice behind him.
Robin turned around to see Starfire floating in midair where he was hooked.
"Hey, Starfire."
Starfire sat herself next to Robin on the loft.
"How has your watch been going?"
"Uneventful. I'm starting to think that you guys might have been right. He might just be an average Joe."
Starfire quirked an eyebrow.
"But his name is Edward, not Joe, Robin."
Robin chuckled at Starfire's naïveté.
"It's an expression we use on Earth. When someone's just an ordinary average person, they're usually referred to as an average Joe."
"Oh. I understand now."
Robin smiled, and then looked back in the window.
"He's doing pretty much the same as he was doing on the recording."
He and Starfire watched as the boy took more supplies from the supply room and into the containment room. Once more, the containment room flashed with crackling electricity; again, the boy came out of the room with just as blank an expression as ever.
"Robin…" cooed Starfire.
Robin turned to face her.
"Star?"
Starfire looked back at the boy through the window.
"I know you may not wish to hear this, but I do not believe that this boy is capable of putting the city in danger."
Robin hung his head.
"I'm sorry that I made you and the others do this, but I really want to make sure that the city is safe. After today, we probably won't be running surveillance on him anymore, okay?"
Starfire let out a weak smile.
"Very well."
Five o' clock soon approached, and the boy hung up his lab coat and exited the laboratory. Robin waited until he heard the lock click to speak up.
"Okay. Now's our chance. I'll go inside and take a look around, and you go meet up with him."
Starfire nodded and flew to the pizzeria, while Robin picked the lock on the window, and squeezed inside. When he entered, his first destination was the supply room, where the boy had retrieved boxfuls of materials for the experiments. He was shocked to find that most of the materials were sands, salts, water-based chemicals, oils, and distilled liquids. Nothing that he found seemed even remotely dangerous; however, his search was not complete. He made his way over to the containment room, and picked the lock. He looked inside to see that the light was off. When he turned it on, he found patterns similar to the ones on the walls of the apartment written on the floor, and everyday objects on the shelves. He found a doll, a flower wreath, a spear, a pole, an umbrella, and a pistol.
"What kind of experiments could result in these?" Robin asked himself.
Meanwhile, Beast Boy had spotted Elric heading out of Wayne Enterprises, no doubt bound for the pizzeria. He turned into a butterfly so that he could follow Ed without being noticed. This failed, however, as Ed turned and noticed him. For one moment, Beast Boy panicked, but then remembered that there weren't a lot of things that were weird about a green butterfly as opposed to all of the other creatures he could've become.
Ed smiled as he noticed the green butterfly.
"A butterfly. Not many of you guys around the city."
He extended his finger, which Beast Boy, playing along, perched on. He then began slowly flapping his wings.
"You miss your home, don't you?"
The boy chuckled at this.
"You and I are a lot alike. We're both far from home, and we have no idea how we're going to get back… Well, half of us have no idea, anyway."
Beast Boy was inwardly weirded out.
Dude, what kind of dude spends his time talking to bugs?
Ed held up his finger, and Beast Boy flew away long enough for Ed to turn away and continue toward the pizzeria. After that, he turned into a fly and began following him from a longer distance. When the boy arrived at the pizzeria, Beast Boy flew to the top of the nearest building, and reverted back to his original form.
"Elric has entered the pizzeria."
"Roger that," said Robin. "Regroup at the tower."
Starfire was sitting at the Titans' usual table on the roof, waiting for Ed to come up to the roof. She, like Raven, was borrowing one of Cyborg's hologram generators. She was also wearing a pair of jeans with a red shirt and a purple windbreaker. Seeing Ed come up to the roof, she opened her communicator, and spoke.
"The Elric has come to the rooftop."
"Good," said Robin. "Wait until he orders his food, and then go to him."
"Very well."
She closed her communicator as Ed sat down at a table.
"Man… I hope they still have those sliced sausages for the pizza."
A girl came up and took Ed's order. For a minute, Ed gawked at the girl. She was a girl with brown hair, green eyes, and round glasses on her face. When he heard her question, he snapped out of his stupor.
"May I take your order, sir?" she asked, with a look of wonder.
"Oh. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I'd like a…" he looked at the menu, "large pepperoni pizza, please."
The girl jotted down the order.
"Anything else?"
"Do you guys have any of that lemon-lime stuff?"
"We have Sierra Mist. Would that work?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
The girl left the roof and went back inside. Starfire took this as her cue to go to the table.
"Excuse me," she asked, getting Elric's attention. However, she actually got more attention than she had hoped for, because he gawked at her the same way that he had the other girl. The hologram she had generated gave her the appearance of a young blonde-haired girl with blue eyes, her hair tied back in a ponytail, her bangs parted to one side, both her ears full of earrings, and a pair of long blonde curtains by her face.
"Um… may I sit with you, sir?"
"Wait. Hold on a second. Does the word, 'automail' mean anything to you?" he asked.
"'Au- automail?'" asked Starfire.
The boy looked crestfallen. He looked at the table in disappointment.
"I suppose that makes sense… another lookalike…"
"You have… mistaken me for someone else?"
"Huh? Yeah, sorry."
"There is no need for apology. May I please sit with you?"
"Uh… sure."
He gestured to the seat across from him. Starfire smiled and sat down.
"I'm having pepperoni pizza. Would you like to join me?"
"I apologize, but… I must respectfully decline."
"Oh, come on. It's no problem for me. You can owe me some other time."
"Oh, very well. I am Kory Anders. May I ask who you are?"
"Edward. Edward Elric. You can call me Ed."
The alien-turned-human extended her hand.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Ed."
She took a few moments to think of anything to ask, but finally decided to try something simple.
"Do you come to this place often?"
"Yeah. It has some interesting dishes. Nothing like the ones where I come from. You?"
"Me and my friends come here quite often. We often fight over who receives the last slice of pizza."
The boy flashed a small, sad grin.
"Wish I had someone to fight over mine with…"
"You do not have any friends?"
Edward frowned again.
"Not from around here. But I have seen a lot of people around here who look like them…"
"Would one of your friends be who you mistook me for?"
"Yeah."
"She was special to you?"
"Let me put it this way: She helped me replace something that I lost, which was really important to me."
"She sounds like a wonderful person."
"Yeah, she is."
Starfire and Ed stayed there conversing for a while, conversing over their pizza. Eventually, Ed needed to leave.
"Well, I appreciate you spending time with me, Kory. I need to get headed home. Work is murder."
"Your work involves killing people?" asked Starfire, cautiously.
Ed chuckled.
"No, no. I mean, it's a hard job, and I need to get as much sleep as possible if I want to be rested enough to concentrate. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Farewell, Edward."
"'Night, Kory," replied Ed. He then left the pizzeria, and Starfire called it in.
"Elric has left the pizzeria and is headed home."
"Okay," said Robin. "Return to the tower, Star."
Cyborg was just outside the pizzeria when Elric walked out. Cyborg hit the camouflage button on the T-Car and followed him back to his apartment complex. When he was satisfied that Ed was back in his apartment, he called it in to Robin, turned around and headed back to the Tower. He needed to meet up with the other Titans and review their surveillance.
To Be Continued…