Okay, I'll keep this note simple!

ALERT: For those of you who didn't know, my story is based off the Fullmetal Alchemist manga! In it, Fuhrer King Bradley isn't Pride, he's Wrath! I know, it's a weird switch, but that's how it is. If you want to check it out for yourself, go to or pick up the 7th book from your local bookstore!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist…I'm not that cool, but I have dreams…

Chapter 5: The Rescue Mission Begins

The Alchemist Games

As Roy stepped out of the shadows and walked into the train station, his footsteps echoed across its vast emptiness. It was deathly quiet at that time of hour, with nothing but a single lamp near the ticket booth the chase away the darkness and reveal how empty the place actually was. From the entrance, to Roy's right and left, was the train corridor that paralleled the tracks. In front of him stood the only ticket booth that handed out passes and announced when the trains were to arrive and depart each day.

Roy walked deeper into the station and reached into his pocket. Pulling out his golden State Alchemist's pocket watch, he flicked the top open and glanced at the time. It was 12:59 in the morning.

Looking down each end of the corridor, Roy pulled out one of his gloves and tugged it onto his right hand. He didn't know exactly what he was waiting for, but he did know that he had to be there if he wanted to get Riza back. Either way, he didn't want to be taken by surprise.

Roy looked again at his pocket watch and walked over to the ticket booth to stand under the lamppost. It was now 1:00 in the morning. He was impatient, and eager to have something happen to bring him out of this waiting stage. What was going to happen? Would he meet someone here? Would they bring Riza? As a few more minutes ticked by, Roy turned these questions over in his mind.

Suddenly, Roy heard footsteps behind him and instinctively pulled his glove tighter onto his hand. Jerking around, prepared to snap, Roy stopped when he saw the silhouette of a small kid approaching. As Edward walked towards him and the light that he was standing under, Roy relaxed and lowered his arm.

Running his hand through his raven-black hair; Roy sighed and said, "Oh, hey Fullmetal, it's just you."

Ed scowled. "What do you mean it's just me?" he replied irritably.

"I thought that you might have been someone else." Roy replied causally, shrugging his shoulders.

The two stood side-by-side for a few moments in silence, glaring at opposite ends of the ground.

Ed finally spoke. "So I take it you're here for the stupid Alchemist Games or whatever?"

Roy nodded. "Yup."

Ed continued. "Why would you want to be here? I had the impression that you thought yourself above games. Do you want the money or something?"

Roy shot a glare at Ed. "No Fullmetal. I'm only here for the same reason you are."

"What! You're here to save Winry too?" Ed questioned, obviously shocked and confused.

Roy's mouth opened and he stared at Ed in disbelief. It was obvious that he hadn't gotten the memo that Riza had been taken too. After a few moments, Roy regained enough composure to respond. "No! She's your girlfriend, not mine! I'm here because…" he yelled, trailing off, realizing that he had just said more than he had intended to.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Ed yelled defensively and taking a step back from Roy. Suddenly he pointed at him. "Hey, wait a minute…do you have a girlfriend?"

Roy rubbed the back of his head.

Ed sent Roy a sly glance. "What ever happened to the 'playboy of the military'? I never figured that you'd have a long term girlfriend; especially one that you'd care about. So who is it? Is it someone I'd know-"

"Edward, stop it." Roy said seriously, cutting Ed off.

"But Colonel, I just don't see you going out of your way to save-"

"Shut up Fullmetal." Roy angrily ordered, positioning his hand into 'snapping mode'. "If you have to know, they took First Lt. Hawkeye. Just like they kidnapped Winry, they kidnapped Riza too," he said, with a subtle blush now creeping up his neck. Roy was losing his cool from waiting, and Ed wasn't making his growing headache any better.

Ed's eyes widened. Even though he was blushing now too, he was shocked. "They took the First Lt. too? How! I mean, who would be crazy enough to even try and take her? Who exactly are these guys?"

"I don't know. But whoever they are, they deserve to burn. The only reason I'm actually going to this thing is to get Riza back. I'll worry about what they're real intentions are later." Roy said, looking into the pitch-black abyss that was the train tunnel.

"And I'm going to get Winry back."

Roy glanced at Ed, noticing that he suddenly looked guilty. "She's been through enough because of Al and me. The only reason they took her was because they wanted me to come…"

Roy nodded and looked back into the darkness. He understood Ed's guilt. He too had blamed himself for Riza's kidnapping.

Silence echoed between them as their blushes faded.

Suddenly, a roaring thunder echoed down from the tunnel, disrupting the awkward silence. A beam of light began to widen and grew brighter with each passing second.

Ed and Roy looked at each other. It was strange that a train would be running this late…unless this is what they were waiting for.

The two alchemists stood silently and watched as a red and black rusty train pulled up into the station, creaking as the gears steadily moved.

As it slowed its descent, Roy and Ed flinched as the brakes sparked, shrieked, and squealed to stop the train. Roy eagerly watched the train car window to catch a glimpse of who - or what - was running it. Ed didn't even try to see. If he stood up on his tiptoes, he knew that Roy would just make fun of him later for being so short. Unfortunately, there were no lights on in any of the cabins and Roy didn't see anything.

As the train slowed to a stop, Roy finally saw movement outside of one of the cabins. Someone was coming out of the nearest train car door.

Hopping down the train's car steps, a man with a tan body and muscular build exited and looked around until he saw Roy and Ed. He was dressed in black pants and a brown t-shirt with a white stripe going horizontally across his chest. He then grinned and waved at the two.

Roy suddenly snapped. Striding over to the mystery man, Roy pulled back his sleeves as Ed quickly hurried to keep up. Roy was pissed. Who was this man to causally come out of the train and smile at them like everything was all right?

"Hello there Mr. Mustang and Mr. Elric! You're the last two to be picked up on our stops tonight. Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Isaac, and-"

Roy had finally reached Isaac, and cocked his arm back, clenching his gloved hand into a tight fist. Interrupting Isaac, Roy threw a punch at him, hitting him square in the jaw. Isaac fell down, surprised by Roy's sudden outburst of aggression. Roy quickly reached down and lifted him back up by the collar on his shirt.

"Where is she!" Roy demanded.

"Whoa, Colonel!" Ed yelled, watching from the sidelines, excited.

Isaac spat a bit of blood onto the floor and began to laugh. "A bit eager to fight, eh? Well, you're never going to get her back that way…Save your energy for the tournament," he said, chuckling.

"Colonel, he's right! Believe me, I've got a right mind to punch this guy in the face too, but- "

Roy cut off Ed's attempt to cool him down. "I'll ask you again. Where's Riza?" he said, jerking Isaac a bit.

Isaac looked at Roy and smiled with one eye twitching. "Don't worry. She's all nice and cozy at our base. We're taking good care of her, not that she deserves it. She put up a good fight yesterday though. We lost one of our men because of her, and a few were wounded."

Roy just continued to look at Isaac. Both were breathing heavily as Ed continued to watch, waiting to see what Roy would do. This was a treat for him. Usually he would have been the one to attack this guy, but Roy had beaten him to it.

"We're wasting time here. If you want to see your precious Riza, then you better put me down now or else you'll never see her again." Isaac said seriously.

"Mustang, come on. Let's just get on the train so we can beat the crap out of these guys when we get there!" Ed said, walking closer to the train.

Isaac began laughing again. "I thought that the Fullmetal brat was the one with the temper! Listen to the kid Mustang."

"Hey! Who you calling a kid-"

"Fullmetal, he's right- you're right. Let's just go." Roy said, grinding his teeth and roughly putting Isaac down. Walking towards the train, he stuck his hands into his pockets and looked down at the ground, avoiding eye contact. He was still angry.

Isaac straightened himself and followed the two onto the train.

"I guess now it begins…it sucks that my paid vacation has to be spent like this…" Roy muttered as he stepped into the train car and took the nearest seat next to the window. Ed followed Roy as he took a seat across from Roy, and positioned himself to take a nap. It was too dark in the car to see if anyone else was in there with them.

As soon as they were situated, Isaac waved and gave them a sarcastic smile before walking up the isle and entering the next train car.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As Ed slept, Roy stared out the window as the train sped up, heading wherever they were heading, until everything else was a blur. His mind wandered in an out of various thoughts, that all seemed to surround Riza.

"Just wait a little longer for me Riza. I'm coming." Roy muttered quietly to the darkness as the rumbling of the train overpowered his words so no one but Roy could hear them.

Well, there you go! There's chapter five! Sorry not much happened in this one, but I promise that the next chapters will be more exciting!

Sorry about the Pride/Wrath confusion in the last chapter. I should have written in bold that there were character spoilers in my story. My bad!

When I was writing about the train part, all that I could think about was the Hogwarts train from Harry Potter…It seems like whenever I think about trains anyway, the only image that comes up is the Hogwarts train! But I made MY train rusty, so I guess it can't be the same because the one in Harry Potter is all shiny!

Thanks for all of your support! Your happy comments inspire me to continue writing and update faster!

Thanks for reading! Send in your reviews or questions! And thanks AGAIN Fuhrer Allie for editing my story! I'd have a lot of grammar errors if it weren't for you! (For those of you who didn't notice, I'm being forced to put her name somewhere at least ONCE per chapter in my intro or conclusion, just so she'll edit for me…That was the deal we made. I mean, I could have paid her money- or even in cookies, but no… she only wanted her name in the credits…)

-Fullmetalfan