Chapter Four: The Battle on the Train
I left an author's note in the edited version of Chapter 1. Please read it. It'll be important if you plan on reading my fan fiction.
- Edward, Rain and Alphonse -
Rain and Edward grabbed something to eat on the train while Alphonse gazed at the passing scenery outside.
"Off to Central to find more information on the Philosopher's Stone. Bad news is, the colonel." Ed said as he got this weird look on his face while Rain looked at Edward clueless.
Alphonse sighed as he shook his head. Rain looked back and forth between the brothers in question. Alphonse seemed to get her confusion.
"Colonel Mustang is Ed's superior in military." Al explained to Rain as Ed decided to take the whole bench, but little room for Rain at least.
"Wake me up when we get to Central." Ed exclaimed. Rain gazed out the window as Al quieted down and the eyes of his armor disappeared, almost indicating he was "asleep" as well.
Rain stared out the window watching the scenery passed by idly.
'Well, I should report to Father when we get back. I bet Lust already told him what happened to that fool of a priest.' She thought as she crossed her legs. She glanced at Edward and Alphonse.
'These two young men. They're different. And smarter if I shall add. I should be careful and not underestimate them. If Envy or Lust or anyone else give away my identify because of the slip of their mouth; I'll kill them. We don't want more complications.' Rain thought as she narrowed her eyes at the passing scenery.
~ Else where in the same train ~
"WHEE! Dad, we're going so fast! This is great!" A little girl age, 5 said as she looked back toward her father from the scenery.
Her brother just watched the whole scene play before hand while smiling. Their father and mother laughed at their daughter's excitement.
"Ha ha ha! Don't get too excited or you'll wear yourself out. Now remember, you promised that you'd play with me when we got there." The father said smiling at his daughter's excitement. His wife looked at him worriedly.
"What about your work, dear?" She asked unsure. The husband sighed and smiled tiredly. "I finally got this vacation. Idon't see the harm in forgetting about work for awhile and just spending time with my family." He said.
It got quiet cause the family heard ruckus outside their door. The family looked toward the door as it opened loudly.
Two men that weren't military stood there with guns pointed at them. "
"You're General Hakuro, right?" The one on the right asked.
"Who are you people? You're rude-" He was cut off by another man in a rugged trench coat and eye patch.
"Sorry for disturbing your family gathering, general. The vacation's over." He said glaring down at him.
General Hakuro shielded his wife and kids from the men.
"From here on, it will be a trip of thrills and despair."
~ East Central: Military HQ~
"The hijacked train was liited express No. 04840, departing from New Optain. This is the work of the "Blue Squad," A group of Easter Extremists."
"Any statements?" The man asked the woman following him while she looked through papers.
"We received a manifesto. Would you like me to read it?" She asked.
The man opened the door. "Let me guess, I'm sure it's full of kind words for the military." He stated.
"How'd you guess?" She asked as she followed him through the doorway and they both went through a couple aisles as rushing military personnel passed them. The East HQ was on alert since the train's destination was appointed to the East.
"They want us to release their leader. We've got him in prison." the woman said.
"How predictable. So is the general really on board?" He asked.
"We're verifying that right now, but it's very likely." Another military man from his division said as they waited for their other man to get the list of the passengers on board.
"Man, what am i gonna do? i have a date set up alter in the evening." The man said sighing irritably and scratching the back of his head.
"It wouldn't have hurt to have an overtime date with us once in a while." Another said while drinking tea and muttering, "complete with nasty tea."
Their leading man rubbed his chin in thought. "I guess that general's jut going to have to sacrifice himself so that we can wrap things up right away."
"Don't be ridiculous, colonel. Here is the list of the passengers." One his men said as he was the one getting requests of passengers on the train. He passed the papers with listed passengers to the others.
"Ah, Old man Hakuro really is on board with his family." One of them said as he leaned in next to their Colonel to look at the listed names.
Colonel sighed. "Good grief. I'm sure he knew that the situation out East is unstable, and yet he comes here on vacation." He looked down the list and stopped when he saw two particular names catch his interests
"Hold on, everyone! I think we can go home earlier today than we thought." He said smirking. "The Fullmetal Alchemist is onboard." He said.
~ Moving Train ~
Rain, Alphonse and the other passengers were wary.
*SNORE*
'I wonder how he can sleep through this.' She thought. She looked at the guy next to their bench with his gun leaning on his shoulder casually.
"How can this brat sleep through all of this?" He asked his other guy that had his gun up to the other passengers and two military men.
Rain and Alphonse glanced at each and back at Edward silently pleading he wake up.
The man next to them apparently got tired of waiting and decided to take matters in his own hands.
"Hey! Wake up!" He poked him with the tip of the barrel of his shotgun.
Edward continued snoring loudly.
"Why you! Act more like a hostage, YOU LITTLE RUNT!" He yelled.
Edward's eyes snapped opened and he had two anime veins. He stood up and stomped his foot auto mail left foot on the ground. A dark aura surrounded him indicating he was pissed, but the two men ignored it.
He pointed his barrel at him again. "What? You got a problem or something? Huh?" He said.
Edward said nothing and clapped is hands on the tip of the gun. The familiar lightning sound filled the train car. His gun was transformed into a trumpet.
"Whoa! What the hell is this?!" He exclaimed as he examined his transformed gun. He couldn't continue, because Edward kicked him the face; officially knocking him unconscious.
Alphonse sighed and face palmed. Rain scratched the back of her head and warily glanced at the other man with the gun. He stalked toward Edward and pointed his gun to him.
"That was dumb, kid." He said. "We were ordered to kill all resisters. I don't want to shoot a runt like you, but-"
ALphonse stalked over and lifted the gun upward away from Edward. "Okay, okay. the two of you should just calm down." Alphonse exclaimed. Rain warily moved over to them slowly.
"What?! You want to fight us-" He started, but got a knee to his face.
Alphonse and the other passengers freaked out. Rain sighed and face palmed.
"YOU CALL ME A RUNT!? A DWARF? A LITTLE PERSON?!" Edward exclaimed as he continued to beat him. The passengers looked scared.
"Big brother! Big brother! If you don't stop, you'll kill him." Alphonse said; effectively stopped Edward from beating the man anymore.
Edward held the man still. He continued to glare at nothing and then turned to Alphonse and Rain.
"So, um…who are these guys?" Edward asked pointing to the unconscious man.
'So he was just subconsciously reacting to the word "runt." ' Alphonse thought while sighing.
"We should tie them up before they become conscious again." Rain said. Edward and Alphonse nodded. Edward transmuted rope for the two men and Alphonse helped him tie them up separately.
Edward kicked one of them awake. "Hey!" Ed said. The man roused awake.
"Are there more of you?" Ed asked as he pumped a fist into his opened hand.
"Besides us, there are two more in the engine room and four more in the class car guarding the general. There are four in the coach car standing guard in different locations."
"And the rest?" Ed asked sounding enthusiastic. Rain and Al sweat dropped.
"That's it! Really! There's no more!" The man said.
The passengers began to panicked. "There's still ten more of them." One of the men exclaimed. "What're you king to to do now? When they hear you beat up their men, they might come retaliate."
Al and Rain sighed.
"If somebody was more mature, this might ended peacefully." Al said.
Ed got irritated and exclaimed, "You can't move forward if you keep regretting the past! What's done is done. I'll go above. Al, you take them from below, alright? Rain, stay here by the passengers and keep them safe."
Rain looked away from nervous passengers toward Ed and Al. Ed winked and Al gave thumbs up. "Don't think we forgot what you did back at the mines." He said. Rain sweat dropped and nervously smiled. "Yes." She said.
"Go ahead and getting going you two." Rain said. Ed and Al nodded. Ed climbed up to the window to go up above.
"Wait, who are you guys?" One of the passengers asked.
Edward grinned. "We're alchemists." Ed said. He jumped out and then freaked and clung to the sides of the window.
"WHAO! WIND PRESSURE! WIND PRESSURE!" Ed yelled.
Alphonse sweat dropped. "How uncool" He said as he helped Ed up to the top. Al left shortly to make his way to the back of the train.
Rain looked up as her and the other passengers heard Ed run along the top to the front.
Rain proceeded to get the passengers to sit back down and try to stay calm.
~ Alphonse POV ~
Alphonse made his way toward the farther back train cars. He heard voices ahead and stopped by a door.
"Hey, weird. Our men in the rear aren't responding. I'll go check it out." One of the men said. "Alright."
Alphonse heard one of them get closer as he continued to ramble to himself. "Man, they're supposed to call in to report." He started, but stopped once he saw Al.
His jaw dropped and his cigarette fell from his mouth. Al looked down calmly.
"What the!" He started shooting and yelling. Al held a hand up to look like he's surrendering. "Wait! It's going to ricochet…I'm too late." He said as he looked at the guy in pain writhing on the floor when a bullet hit him in the knee.
"OW! AGH!" The man grasped his wounded knee.
Rushing footsteps came toward the two.
"Hey, what's!?" Alphonse sighed as the same thing happened to the man. He mumbled to himself, "Are you guys stupid?"
~ Train car with General Hakuro ~
"Hey Bald. Contact with the rear car has ceased." One of the men said hold the phone. "What does that mean?" Another asked.
"There's someone on aboard." Bald said.
"That's ridiculous!" Another said. "We took care of all the guards and we've cut all communications to the outside. There's no way a passenger could call for help."
"Did one of us turn traitor?" One asked. "Couldn't be!" Another said in denial.
"Hmph. You're nothing but a bunch of trash. You fall apart as soon as your little plan starts to got wrong. Things aren't going how you want. Now's the time to start thinking about surrendering you slime." General Hakuro said.
Bald glared and shot part of his left ear off. Hakuro grasped his bleeding ear as Bald reloaded his auto-mail gunned arm.
"Don't speak until spoken to. Next time, the hole won't be so little." Bald said.
Hakuro's family surrounded him in worry and fear.
It got quiet when they all heard running footsteps above them. Bald started shooting upward until they heard a yelp.
"It's a rat. Go check above." Bald ordered one of his men. He nodded and left.
~ Edward POV ~
"Whoa! That was too close! If it weren't for my left leg, i would've been gone." Ed exclaimed as he took the bullet out of his auto-mail leg. "Dammit! Just you wait. He said. First, I'll recapture the engine room." Ed said as he stood up and headed in that direction.
He threw the bullet in the room to distract the two men watching the engine personal that kept the train going.
One of them men fell for his distraction and went to check out the bullet he threw.
"A bullet?" He asked. The other one standing looked at it in questioned.
"Where did that-" He never finished, because Edward jumped in and kicked face first into the pipe beside him efficiently knocking him out.
The other man turned around and readied his gun to fire. "Why you!" He was cut off too by a hit in the head with a shovel by one of them men that worked the engines. The two of them hit the guy until he passed out. Ed just stood there flabbergasted. They turned and gave him thumbs up. Ed responded and grinned. He headed out the window again to climb up the ladder.
The guy driving the train leaned against the window he climbed out. "Anything I can do?" He asked.
"Just drive safely please! Ed exclaimed and proceeded to climb up to the top. He looked ahead to see another one with a gun pointed at him.
"There you are, you rodent!" He said and opened fire. Ed ducked.
"That was dangerous you jerk!" He yelled and clapped his hands to make a cannon out of the coal in the cart he held onto. He fired a cannon on the guy, but he fell back in the train car.
The guy driving got angry. "Hey! What are you doing to the tender car?! That's got water and coal for the whole train." He yelled.
"Sorry!" Ed yelled back as he sat down onto of the cart. Ed thought for a moment. "Hmm? The tender car?" He knocked against the train car to hear a hollow with water underneath the coal.
~ Train car with General Hakuro ~
"Bald! That's no mouse. I don't know who he is, but there's some crazy guy up there." The one exclaimed that fell back into the train car; barely missing the cannon that was meant for him.
The guy behind Bald talked on the phone with another member of their group. "Hey, car no. 2! What's going on? Hey!" He exclaimed. All he got was, "Help..There's a huge suit of armor!" Then they heard screaming and silence.
A lightning noise interrupted the tense silence. Everyone looked to see a miniature trumpet speaker of Edward.
"What's that?" One asked.
"Hello, hello? Calling all hijackers! We We have recaptured the engine room and the rear cars. This car is the only one left. Please lay down your arms and let the hostages go. If not, we will have no choice but to use force." Ed said.
"What a joke! I don't know who you are but as long as we have the hostages, we'll never give up!" Bald exclaimed in anger.
"Oh my! You're still going to resist?" Ed asked. "Too bad. Talk's over." A water pipe was transmuted below the trumpet speaker.
"Is that a water pipe?" One asked as they all stared at the pipe in realization.
"All passengers, please take cover!" Ed exclaimed. He turned the switch and the water filled the car up.
Al opened the back and the men came pouring out while Bald was still inside the car.
Al smashed his fists together. "Welcome" He said with a sinister shadowed look.
"It's the big suit of armor." One of the men said in horror as the others gaped at Al.
Bald still inside the car stood up while soaked to the brim from the water.
"We're not through. We still got hostages!" He said. He turned toward the sound of a door opening to reveal Rain.
"Who are you wench?" He yelled in anger. Rain said nothing as Ed jumped down from above. Bald looked back and forth from between them.
Rain nodded toward Ed and he silently agreed. Bald turned to look at Rain who ran at him in a fast speed and she jumped up and grabbed his shoulder to help her wrap her legs around his head and used the momentum she used to jump over and flipped him over.
He slammed into the ground and she jumped off of him.
Bald got up. "You..You bitch!" He exclaimed and readied his auto-mail gun. Ed stepped in front of him.
"Well, well. someone else with an auto-mail arm?" He asked smirking. He transmuted part of his arm into his familiar arm sword. Bald stood there shocked, but then charged toward him. "You're just a little brat!" He yelled. He was about to shoot, but Ed beat him to it and struck his auto-mail in his.
"You know, you bought the cheaper model, didn't you?" He asked as Al came up from behind and grasped Bald's shoulder and punched him. Knocking him unconscious. Rain joined the two brothers as Ed restrained Bald.
The three stayed by Bald till they arrived at East Central. The station was filled some military personnel whom were waiting to take orders to go in and grab the hijackers.
Ed, Rain and Al left Bald to their care and went outside with the other passengers.
"Hey, Fullmetal." A voice from the side of them said.
Ed glared at him darkly while Al perked up at seeing him and Rain gazed at him. "Oh, hello Colonel." Al said politely.
Colonel glanced at Ed. "You still don't like me huh?" He asked smirking. He noticed Ed's auto-mail arm. "I guess you're still not back to normal." he stated simply.
He glanced down and then bought his auto-mail fist up. "I'm researching the ancient texts, but nothing yet. I pulled an all nighter the other night. right now we've been searching east city, but we still haven't found anything that might work." Ed said.
Al glanced at Rain who stood behind watching Ed and Colonel interact. "Oh, colonel." Al said getting his attention. "We have a new friend." Al said as he lightly gave Rain a nudge to stand in front of him.
"Pleasure to meet you." Rain said as she nodded. Colonel nodded back. "Likewise. Where did you find her?" He asked as him and his Lieutenant looked over Rain.
"Back when we stopped that Priest." Ed said.
Colonel smirked. "Now that I think about it, I've heard the rumors. It seems you're causing quite a commotion." He said.
Ed gave him an irritated look. "I guess you're nosy as ever." He said.
"Frankly, it's not hard to hear about you." Colonel said giving him a casual hand gesture to emphasize.
A commotion stopped their talking as they all looked to see a dead soldier and a wounded soldier that were in charged of restraining Bald.
He looked furious and held his auto-mail arm to reveal a knife hidden.
"Whoa." Ed said. 'He had a knife hidden.' Ed thought.
Lieutenant stepped forward. "Please stay back, Colonel." She said.
Colonel held a hand to stop her. "I'll take care of this." He said smirking as he raised a gloved hand.
Bald gave a cry and charged forward toward him.
Colonel raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Sparks flew from his gloved hand and a burst of fire exploded in front of Bald, making him fall backwards with smoke coming off of him.
Colonel went over to stand in front of him with pride of his alchemy.
Two officers rushed to restrained him.
"I took it easy on you. If you try to resist again, I'll turn you into ash, got it?" Colonel questioned.
"You damn bastard! Who the hell are you?!" Bald exclaimed.
"Roy Mustang. Rank: Colonel. And one more thing. I'm the "Flame Alchemist." Don't forget that." Colonel Roy said as he fixed his collar of his military uniform.