At Central

"So, Al." Ed yawned. It was still quite early in the morning but Edward found himself awake anyway. "D'ya think Mustang will want us to help out in tracking down this Caradon?"

"It's entirely possible I guess. But do you really want to face him right now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were the one who said this trip was a wild goose chase and we ended up finding something helpful to the military, I don't think the Colonel is likely to forget that knowing how he's always finding someway to poke fun at you."

"Yeah I know. But maybe…"

"Cockadoo!"

"YAAAHHHH!"

Ed flung himself out of bed as though it electrified him.

"WHAT DOES THAT PATHETIC PIECE OF POULTRY THINK HE'S DOING!"

"I heard that!"

"I'M GLAD YOU DID!"

"Brother calm down, you're going to wake everyone up."

"Like he hasn't already?"

"It's only so loud because he's right across from us."

Ed started grumbling and Al didn't even care about what. Chanticleer knocked on the door to which Edward promptly told him to shove off.

"If you really must know Mustang asked me to do that." He said through the door.

"To do what? Annoy me?"

"No, he wanted to send a few soldiers to that town were Al and I saw Caradon really early so they'd have a better chance of finding him if he's tried to move on in fear of being caught."

Ed jumped back into bed and slapped his pillow over his ears.

"It's too early I'm going back to sleep."

"But brother you were wide awake a few minutes ago and even more awake when Chanticleer crowed."

Not fooling anyone Ed pretended to snore.

"Ya know they have medication for people like you." Chanticleer teased.

"SNORE!"

"I was referring to the size of your ego that makes up for your height."

Chanticleer was already heading for tall timber before he even finished the sentence. He zipped into his room, closed the door, opened the window and made a stone figure that looked like himself on the ground below then slipped under his bed. Right on que Edward exploded through the door, saw the open window, saw the figure running away, and jumped out after it. If he had taken an extra five seconds to get a better look at the figure he could have easily concluded it wasn't Chanticleer but how many of us have seen Ed analyze the world around him after someone has poked fun at his size?

Also too bad for him that he didn't notice the difference because once he caught up to the figure he gave it as mighty of a punch as humanly possible with his automail arm. The instant Ed touched the moving statue it became stationary, revealing he'd been the victim of another hoax. The sad part is even though you cant hurt metal with rock…metal is very sensitive to vibrations and such a powerful punch sent a whole lot of those vibrations up the Fullmetal's arm

"WHERE IS HE!" Ed zipped back to his room to a very shocked Al. The speed in which he'd gotten there was enough to make a cheetah do a double take.

Long story short Ed ran around trying to Chanticleer who hadn't left his post under his bed until the coast was clear. Quite some time later Ed gave up and cooled down a bit until the two met again and Al had to hold his brother back so Chanticleer didn't get something broken.

(Isn't this getting a little over familiar?)

In Mustangs office

"So you really thing we've got a decent lead on this guy." Maes Hughes sat in the office with his friend, Roy. "It's unfortunate what happened to those kids but they should be grateful to be alive."

"I know. I sent four soldiers to investigate the town and the building. If Caradon isn't there lets hope he left a few clues behind."

"So where are they now? If Caradon suddenly considers those kids to be a threat to his whereabouts somebody's going to have their walls dyed red."

"I have no doubt in my mind that would happen, but only if they were found. I have them staying with The Dawns friends. Hopefully no one will suspect a group of teens to which some people may consider freaks to be taking up lodgings in such a grand house."

Hughes nodded. What he said made sense so all that needs to be prayed for now is Caradon's men don't look too deeply on situations when trying to find someone. That thought lightened the load on his nerves for those kids a bit but sunk again once he remembered Caradon wasn't a dumb man.

He'd managed to slip through the military's fingers so many times it was unbelievable. It didn't help that whenever Caradon made a scene his greatest rival, Mitsuku Owston would appear in another town when the military already had their hands full trying to clean up Caradon's mess. Either that or Mitsuku would make the first move and Caradon would show up later.

Still Hughes considered it a blessing that the two men hated each other and weren't likely to join forces otherwise catching them would be like trying to stop the flow of a river with your bare hands. The only good thing those two ever brought around is they would never allow another so-called gang leader get in their way of being the best. Sadly the only way to insure that is to abolish the lower rival so they couldn't work their way to the top and unseat them.

Hughes was positive Mustang was thinking the same thing he was, at least this time Caradon only threw a few teens out of a laboratory and didn't erase anyone.

Me-yes I know the first ½ doesn't relate to the story at all but I was getting on my own nerves about not having Chanty make fun of Ed's height yet. That and I think it's fun to see Ed spaz.

Chibi me – I'd like to see Chanty spaz.

Me – I've got an idea but it isn't like he's gonna go haywire like Ed does. It's only a few sentences and it shows up in a later chapter but at least it's better than nothin'

Chibi me – (snaps fingers) darn it!

Me – now we must ask ourselves…who is Mitsuku Owston? A rival gang leader to Caradon Corius yes, but as will be exposed next time (and keep a good hold on your hair cuz this is going to be interesting) that they managed to settle their differences for a moment that turns what we know so far upside down.