Chapter Four

Ed practically bolted off the train when they reached North City. She ran as fast as she could until she had reached the end of the train platform with Alphonse on her heels.

"Look, there's snow!" Ed called out excitedly. They had never had much snow in Resembool, so it was a novelty for them. She ran down the steps of the train station, though didn't make it to the bottom before she slipped and fell onto the ground, sliding down the steps. Ice was new.

"Brother!" Al called out worriedly. He could see that Ed was fine when she pulled herself up, though rubbed at her lower back with a grunt. "You should be more careful."

"Shut up," Ed said, rolling her eyes. The two found a bench to sit at while Ed recovered from her fall.

"Ed, you are so uncoordinated," Al commented at his sister with a little bit of a laugh.

"Oh, shut up, it was just a little sleep, jeez," Ed said, which only made Al laugh more.

"All this snow is amazing, huh?" Al marveled.

"Yeah, you don't get this much snow back at home, that's for sure," Ed responded. It shocked her slightly that she still referred to Resembool as her home, even though they had been gone for years now. Ed was nearly seventeen already. While they didn't get much snow in Resembool, she could recall one time they had quite a bit. "Hey, Al," Ed said, getting her brother's attention. "Do you remember that one really heavy snow we got back when we were little?"

"Maybe..." Al trailed off in thought. "Oh, yeah, I remember! We had a snowball fight!"

"And we made a snowman!" Ed chirped.

"Yeah!" Al would be grinning ear to ear if he could as he recalled the happy memories of their childhood. They were a lot better than the bad memories. "Back then, I never imagined we would come this far north. It seemed impossible." If not for the transmutation that had made them leave Resembool, Al would have thought they would never leave. Of course, that was when their mother was alive. Ed would have probably gone stir crazy and left whether she died or not, though.

"Yeah," Ed said with a thoughtful smile. "But here we are now."

The two collected themselves and stood from the bench once Ed was fully recovered from her fall.

"So, now what do we do?" Ed asked. "We still have a little bit of time before our train to Briggs takes off."

"Why don't you grab something to eat?" Al suggested. Ed was always getting hungry when it was inconvenient and planning sounding much better to Al than dawdling off until the train took off.

"Eh, I don't know. I'm not really all that hungry," Ed said. "But I guess we could look," she said before bolting into a sprint once more.

"Careful, you're gonna fall again!" Al called after her as he ran behind her.

"SHUT UP!"


Ed sneezed and shivered on the back of a wagon, pulling her coat closer to her. She never would have expected it to be so cold in the north, even if it was covered with snow.

"Are you catching a cold?" Alphonse asked worriedly. He didn't want Ed to get sick in an unfamiliar setting.

"Oh, I'm cold all right," Ed said as she continued to shiver. "That's Briggs for you."

Suddenly, the wagon stopped in front of a small fence. "All right, this is where I let you go, boys," the man driving the cart said. "If you follow this mountain road, it'll lead you straight to Fort Briggs."

"Okay, thanks," Ed thanked as the two hopped off the cart.

"And you in the armor," the man said.

"Me?" Al asked.

"Yes, you; is that automail?"

"No," Al answered.

"Oh, okay, then you should be all right?" the man said before the driving the cart away.

"What was that all about?" Ed asked. Should she be worried about her automail in this climate?

"Beats me," Al said.

"That's military land beyond the fence, so stay on the road if you want to live!" the man called from behind him.

"Huh?" the two asked simultaneously.

"You ready?" Ed asked.

"Yeah."

The two had barely been walking on the road to headquarters before the wind picked up. It was as if a few minutes had only passed, but a blizzard had formed around them. Ed let out a frustrated scream in the snowy wind.

"I know they say the weather here changes quickly, but this seems a little extreme if you ask me," Ed said as she held her coat tightly to her body in an effort to keep warm.

"What do we do now, brother?" Al asked. "We can't even see the road."

"Relax, we'll be fine," Ed said, trying to reassure her brother. "Teacher said she was tossed out here for a whole month during her training; she survived."

"No way! She couldn't have lived in this for an entire month!" Alphonse exclaimed.

"Sure she could! She even killed a bear," Ed said.

"The bears around here are more than 15 feet tall! There's no way she could have killed one more them!" Alphonse continued to marvel over how strong their teacher was until each Elric could feel a creeping sensation from behind them.

The two screamed before Ed automatically pulled out her arm and transmuted it into a blade. She had thought it had been a bear, though she quickly saw the automail blade that rivaled her own.

"That's no bear!" Ed exclaimed. She moved to fight until Al had been tied around a net by the man with the long braid and giant automail arm.

"Alphonse!" Ed shouted as she saw her brother thrown to the ground. She turned to the man, noticing the familiar blue clothing. "Hey, wait a second! Is that a military uniform you're wearing?!"

"Well, it looks like some pretty mediocre stuff, but you have automail too, don't you?" the man asked.

"Huh? Mediocre just because mine's not tacky like yours?" Ed asked. She could get as offended as Winry when her automail was trashed on.

"Fool! Obviously you don't know a good weapon when you see one!" the man exclaimed. "This right here is combat automail model M1913A, the Crocodile! Now surrender peacefully, you miserable Drachman spy, or I'll show you exactly what this baby can do!"

"Spy?! What are you talking about; I'm not a-" Ed had to doge several hits the soldier attempted with his automail, eventually doing a flip and landing on her feet. "Don't you know what I'm saying, moron?!"

Ed suddenly felt a surge of pain through her right shoulder, grabbing at it. "What the hell?" she asked herself. "It shouldn't be hurting." Her right hand suddenly began to shake uncontrollably. "Something's wrong with my automail."

"Gotcha!" the soldier exclaimed as he grabbed Ed's automail arm with the clamp in his own.

"Brother!" Alphonse shouted.

"You bastard!" Ed called out with reducing strength. "Listen to me for a second!"

"Your resistance is futile!" The soldier suddenly began to rev up his automail and it began to shred at Ed's own.

"No, Wait!" Ed called out, not wanting her automail to be ruined. "WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT STOP!"

"Your pathetic automail is easy to destroy," the man said with a grin.

"No... You've got it wrong!" Ed called. "I'll destroy YOUR ARM!" With the clap of her hands she attempted to transmute the soldier's automail arm. Though...nothing happened.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" he asked as he continued to shred Ed's arm.

"AH STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!" Ed cried. "What's going on?! Why didn't my alchemy work on it?! This thing's made of iron, isn't it!"

"Brother" Al called, suddenly out of the netting that had entrapped him before. He threw his armored head over to Ed in order to help.

"Thanks, Alphonse!" Ed responded, shoving Al's head between the clamps that held her own arm. She was suddenly let go and fell to the ground with a thud.

"Hm?" The soldier looked down at the head stuck in his automail.

"You okay?" Alphonse asked hastily.

"This is bad," Ed said. "I hope I die here or else Winry's gonna kill me!"

"That wasn't too bad, kid. Especially with that ordinary automail you have," the soldier said. "But it's all over now."

"Huh?" The Elrics looked around and saw soldiers in white camouflage holding guns up to their heads.

"The Briggs mountain guard..." Alphonse trailed off.

"This is getting old," Ed said. "I don't want another gun stuck in my face."

"Brother..." Al said, pointing to the wall in front of them.

"A wall?" Ed asked.

"Buccaneer!" a voice called from the top of it. "Who are they?!"

"I'm sorry; I didn't see you there, General Armstrong!" the soldier, Buccaneer, said while standing at attention. "I apologize for the disturbance."

"Huh?"

"Armstrong?" Alphonse asked.

"That's who Major Armstrong wanted us to meet when we made it here? Major Armstrong's older sister!" Ed pondered.

"But...they look different," Al observed.

"She's not huge," Ed commented.

"I'll ask again!" Armstrong called. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist; my name's Edward Elric. Major Armstrong from Central Command sent us here to meet with the General in charge of this post," Ed explained. "Now can you call of your guard dogs?"

"Search them," Armstrong ordered.

"But I'm with the military!" Ed protested.

"Sure; but how do I verify that?" Armstrong asked. "Anyone can claim to be somebody famous."

"He's hollow!" one of the soldiers searching them exclaimed when they began to search Alphonse.

"Ah, you noticed," Ed said with the roll of her eyes. She was getting tired of stuff like this.

"What's this?" a soldier searching through Ed's suitcase asked.

Oh god, don't let it be a bra, Ed thought to herself.

"General!" The soldier climbed the wall and delivered a letter to the General.

Thank God, just Armstrong's letter of introduction.

"That's a letter of introduction from Major Alex Louise Armstrong," Ed said. "Just read that; you'll know you can trust us."

"It's from Alex all right," Armstrong said after inspecting the envelope. She quickly began to tore it apart.

"Aren't you even gonna read it?!" Ed asked.

"A letter of introduction means nothing to me," Armstrong said. "I prefer to judge people I meet with my own eyes." The letter flew into the wind, forever unread. It gave Ed a chance to look over the large wall.

"That's amazing. It's huge! What is this place?!" Ed marveled.

"Enter, Fullmetal Alchemist!" Armstrong ordered.

"This is incredible!" Ed exclaimed. "That was is really really really tall!"

"Quit gaping like an idiot before I tear your little body apart limb by limb!" Armstrong shouted. "Be warned; I won't coddle you because you're children. This is the mountain fortress; Briggs! Here, only the strong survive!"