(Ichigo: Two chapters in one day huh...?
Orenji: We're on a roll...
Ichigo: Reviews please!)
Disclaimer: We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist...though maybe we own the ending of a chapter in a way...well...you'll see what we mean...
3rd Transmutation: How to Foil an Evil Plot and How Not to Foil Yourself
"Al-chan! Ai-neechan!"
"Karin!"
"Karin-chan! You're okay!"
Karin smiled, panting slightly to catch her breath, "Yeah! I'm fine!" she peered around curiously, "Where's Nii-chan?"
"He was taken to the dungeon by Cornello." Al explained, relieved that Karin was safe and sound.
"Ehhh!? Jeez…Nii-chan's an idiot…"
"Yeahhhh," The brunette Claire drawled as she looked skyward for a moment, "But we have a plan though…but leave it to him to make it a risky one."
Sensing a chance to prove how useful she was to the group, Karin stood ram-rod straight in an attempt to add an inch or two to her height and thumped a fist against her chest, "What do I have to do?"
"Well…" Al began, "We have to steal a bell…make some broadcasting equipment, and get a microphone near Nii-san so he can get Cornello to reveal his plans on air so everyone can hear it…"
The blond sweatdropped slightly, "So if the people start believing in alchemy we're dead…" Karin paused, thinking. If the citizens decided to believe in alchemy they might buy an excuse along the lines of the heroes making a false broadcast, but they had yet to believe their claims about alchemy before….
"Well, whatever!" Karin shrugged and smiled at Al who seemed to return the gesture as best he could in a suit of armor, "Karin'll do her best to help!"
"Alright, can you two handle getting the broadcasting equipment together?"
Karin turned towards her sister, "Mm! We can definitely manage! Definitely!" she paused again, "What are you going to be doing, Ai-neechan?"
"I'll find where that shorty's hiding."
"Hehehehe, okay!"
"Alright, so we'll meet back here in say…four hours, sound good?"
Al nodded, "Yep!"
"Good luck!" Karin called after her sister as she raced off.
"Take care!" she retorted.
"You too! C'mon Al-chan! Try to keep up!" Karin shouted as she raced off clutching tightly onto her bear, hoping she could win this self-instigated race…
Even if for every one of Al's steps she had to take three or four…
Ed made a face at the door as it swung shut as Rose exited, "She could've at least said hello or something…" Ed grumbled as he shifted trying to make himself comfortable on the hard stone floor. No luck however. Having his arms bound above his head was not something he was enjoying or found very comfortable, 'Remind me not to end up in prison again…'
Suddenly, Ed became aware of some scratching sounds sounding from the wall behind him, "…Claire…?"
"Yo!" she greeted as she popped her head out of the hole, vaguely reminding Ed of an amusing carnival game he played once as a child when a travelling carnival visited Resembool many years ago.
"Did you find Karin?"
"Of course we did!" Claire replied her voice muffled as she dove back into the tunnel to fetch something.
"So she's alright?"
"Yeah, we found her outside with that Wuori guy. She seems fine."
Ed scowled and made a sound of dislike at the mention of Mikko. He then returned to his task of shifting the food tray over to him using his feet, an act that caused Claire to snicker.
"Nice eating arrangements." she said as she began setting up the microphone.
"You could help your loveable childhood friend, you know?"
She rolled her eyes, "Fine!"
"Thank you" Ed said gleefully as he used his newly freed hands to dig into the food with a renewed vigor.
Claire rolled her eyes again, blushing as she had not expected such sincere thanks for the boy, "Jeez, so do you really think this plan will work?"
"But of course! I AM the one who thought it up!"
"Oh, you're right! How could I ever doubt you!"
Ed scowled a bit, the sarcasm not going unnoticed, however, it was ignored, "It's ok." he said with a smug look on his face, "The stupid often have doubts…NOOOO! MY BREAD!!!"
"Well, it's MINE now." Claire replied cheekily as she settled herself beside Ed and tore off a piece preparing to pop it into her mouth but had to hold her arms above her head when Ed dove for the bread.
"GIMME!"
"NO!"
"GIMMEEEEEE!"
"MAKE ME!"
"GLADLY!" he cried excepting the challenge and stood upright in a fighting stance.
"You're not serious…"
"Aren't I always!? So c'mon! Unless you're too chicken!"
"NEVER!" she cried also assuming a fighting stance.
"Bring it glasses freak!"
Before a battle royale over the forgotten piece of bread on the floor could begin, the sound of boots clanking against the stone echoed into the room as well as a door slowly creaking open.
"Hide!" Ed hissed quietly as he hurriedly placed himself in position and held his hands above his head putting them through the now too big handcuffs, giving the allusion of still being restrained. Afterwards Ed thanked his lucky stars that Claire had managed to disappear down the hole before Cornello entered the chamber.
"You fraud will go public soon." Ed assured him.
Cornello believed otherwise however…
"The believers cannot tell the difference between miracles and alchemy. No, alchemy and miracles are the same to them. It makes them happy."
Ed raised his eyebrow, "Yeah? And how does this benefit you?"
As Cornello began his long winding speech, Ed prayed that Al and Karin had successfully assembled all they needed and had made the broadcasting equipment…
If they hadn't…well…
They were sunk.
Carefully Karin peered around the corner of the tower, her eyes focused on the pathway at the base of the stairs. She carefully watched for a few moments, trying to detect if they were followed.
"Were we followed, Karin-chan?"
Karin turned slightly, her hand gripping the corner of the wall as she shook her blond head, "No, I doesn't look like it…"
"That's a relief!" Al said as he made the final touches to his transmutation circle.
"But…."
"Eh? But?"
Karin squatted beside the circle hugging her knees and stared at the circle for a moment before looking up at Al's red eyes, "You make too much noise, Al-chan. Every time you walk all you hear is clanking...someone probably heard you…"
"E-Ehhhhhh!?"
"Just kidding." she smiled.
"J-Jeez! Karin-chan!"
"I'm sorry! It was just too tempting! Nihahahaha!"
Al laughed a little as he began to assemble the needed equipment while explaining some things to Roze…
"The basic tenant of alchemy," he explained. "Is the principal of equivalent exchange. To gain something, you must part with something of equal value. My brother is called a genius, but he earned it all through hard work. That is why he is who he is now." he concluded as he finished making a switch for the broadcasting system.
"But you two paid the price didn't you?" Rose protested, "An arm, a leg, and a body…but you are trying to regain them now. What happened to your mother?"
Al was silent for a moment before standing up, "…I think it's about to begin."
Karin covered her ears as she stood near the Al, who was preparing to flip the switch, "This is gunna be loud…" she warned Rose, and soon enough as soon as Al flipped the switch a blasting horn bellowed out of the bell causing Karin's eyes to turn into swirls due to her close proximity, "See what I mean?"
So you were after the money, after all. Ed's voice echoed out of the bell and floated over the town below surprising Roze.
Could Al perform miracles like Cornello? Roze wasn't sure…but nonetheless…
She felt as though she'd get her answers….
One way or another…
"I can get as much money as I want through donations from my followers," Cornello replied, "What I want are believers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for me. They believe that I can resurrect people so they do not fear death. Those believers will eventually become the ultimate army. Just watch. I will be subjugating this country in a few years."
Ed sighed, become bored with the speech and deciding that his arms were becoming too sore, Ed brought them down from the shackles, seeing no point in keeping up the charade. Besides…with Cornello's eyes always closed the way they were, Ed doubted he could see at all, "I don't care about that. You can't revive anyone, right?"
"Of course! Even if you try performing human transmutation using the Philosopher's Stone, the outcome is unpredictable. Why should I make the risk for a believer…" Cornello's voice trailed off as he noticed Ed was casually eating the bread he and Claire had been bickering over not five minutes ago.
Ed paused noticing his gaze and grinned and moved over, revealing the hole inside which Claire and the microphone were hiding in.
"How did you get the bread back?" Claire asked as tears streamed down her face in a comical fashion.
"Never doubt a genius!" Ed smirked.
"Not fair…"
"Fair is fair is fair!"
"How long has that microphone been on!?" Cornello yelled, "A-And where the hell did she come from!?"
"The hole obviously, oh, it's been on since you started your tirade. You really have to be careful of what you say, you know?"
"How did you get my broadcasting equipment?!"
"My little brother and sister got it. Ah. The one you caught yesterday was some junk I transmutated to look like him and my sister got started while you were still talking with us."
"No! These are all lies! Don't believe him!" Cornello yelled as he transmutated a large gun using the stone.
"That gun is so cheap…"
Ed sweatdropped, "Claire, this isn't the time to worry about what kind of gun he's gunna shoot us with!"
Claire sighed producing a hand gun from a hostel on her waist, "Fine…"
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
"CLAIRE!?" Ed cried as he pressed his back against the wall.
"I know what I'm doing!"
"That remains to be seen!"
However, it turned out Claire did know what she was doing. For when Cornello pulled the trigger the gun made a groaning sound, but not shots were fired.
Not a single one.
"Claire….?" Ed began stunned.
"I blocked the…" she trailed off as she realized she didn't know now to 'dumb down' the explanation and Ed wouldn't understand the technical terms she would use, "…just chop the thing in half already!"
"R-Right!" Ed clapped his hands together and transmutated his auto mail, extending the metal surface of the arm into a sharp blade and sliced the gun in half.
Not to be defeated, Cornello dropped his bazooka and jumped at Claire trying to wrestle the handgun from her…
BANG!
Ed watched stunned as Cornello's limp body fell to the ground with a thud, a pool of blood slowly beginning to stain the floor, while Claire could only shake her head, tossing her black locks.
"I was going to tell you not to touch it!"
"Claire….what did you do?"
"The trigger is sensitive! His fingers are huge!"
The elder Elric paused for a second as he processed what Claire just said. Claire had still been pointing the gun at Cornello, having just finished plugging his gun. Then Cornello grabbed Claire's gun after dropping his own and they began wrestling for possession of the hand gun. If the trigger was sensitive and the trigger was accidentally jostled in the scuffle…with the gun still pointing in Cornello's direction…
"So…the fraud shot himself…in a way….well…that….was…a…COMPLETE AND TOTAL WASTE OF MY PLAN! I GOT KNOCKED UNCONCIOUS FOR THIS!"
"Inside voice!" Claire hissed gesturing to the, likely, still active microphone before examining any damage that might have been afflicted onto her gun, "Awww…he totaled the trigger…"
"…IS THAT GUN ALL YOU CARE ABOUT!?"
"No! It just took me hours to fix the trigger…"
"If it was that sensitive to begin with, then maybe it's a good thing it's totaled!"
She sighed, "Yeah, you're probably right. Back to the drawing board I guess."
Ed snorted, "I'd say…oh well…" he walked over to Cornello's still body and pulled the gold ring off his finger and held it up towards the light, "At least we have this…"
"Yeah, let's go back to the others."
"Mm…let's try and leave this town before it revolts…"
"Nii-chan!? Ai-neechan!?" Karin ran up to the two of them as they came out of the door to the church, "What was all that noise!?"
"Ahh, don't worry about it, don't worry about it, but look!" Ed held out the ring to Karin.
Gasping happily Karin took the ring carefully into her palms, "Yes!" she cried as she spun happily in a circle, overjoyed that Al would be returned to his body soon and she rushed off towards Al who was coming their way, waving her hand that held the ring, "Al-chan! Al-chan! We got it, WE GOT IT-WAH!"
Unnoticed to anyone, there was an uneven stone in the road, which caused Karin to trip over it and as she fell the ring flew from her…
and it shattered on the stone just out of Karin's reach…
They were all stunned for a moment. Karin the most as she stood on her hands and knees and looked at the now empty gold ring. The ring that had once held the Philosopher's Stone.
The one thing that could return Ed and Al to normal…
And suddenly, feeling as though she had committed some horrible crime…Karin's green eyes filled with tears and she sat back on her heels and began to cry uncontrollably into the backs of her hands.
"Shoot!" Ed cried hurrying over to try and stem the flow of tears, "Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! C'mon, don't cry!"
"It was a fake…" Claire muttered in disbelief.
Al sweatdropped at Ed's futile attempts to stem Karin's tears, "Nii-san…"
"Karin, don't worry about it!" Claire assured her younger sister as she placed her hands on her shoulders, "The stone is a pure substance and wouldn't break so easily. By you breaking it, it proves that it was a fake stone."
"But…but…I thought we could fix Nii-chan and Al-chan finally then we could go home and everything would be normal again…!"
"Aww…" Claire hugged her sister, "It's okay!"
"We'll find it for sure!" Al added trying to comfort the girl.
"But first…" Ed looked around nervously, "Let's get out of here before the whole town revolts…"
"Ohhhh, right."
"T-That would be bad…"
"Ahh…shall we run before anyone asks questions?"
"Yes, let's."
They were all about to walk out of town when Ed suddenly stopped. His three companions looked back with questionable looks.
"I'm tired of this!! 'Shall we run away before anyone asks questions?' We're not fugitives or anything! Besides, that idea is boring! I say we-"
Ed was about to share his brilliant scheme when out of the blue he felt himself being thrown out into the desert, courtesy of Claire.
"How's THAT for boring!? I'm really getting tired of your reckless attitude!! Don't think this is over, shorty!!"
With that she zoomed off after the flying alchemist leaving the two younger siblings to sigh.
"T-They really haven't changed at all."
"After all these years, I'm really starting to doubt they'll ever change…"