All previous disclaimers apply.

Chapter 2: Fateful Encounters

The sun beat down hard on Edward's head. He stood up and stretched, realizing that there was no way he could have been able to tell how long he had been laying there after leaving the Gate. He found a bench to sit on a few yards away and began to take stock of his surroundings. He looked at the buildings that were off in the distance, and even saw something that looked like a high-tech railway.

Turning his focus closer, he was reminded that he had landed in a park. Groups of varying numbers of kids dotted the play area, but one group in particular caught his attention. He noticed them because he could feel their eyes on him. Four of them were seated – two girls and two boys – the third boy stood, kicking a white and black-spotted ball.

Ayumi looked around at her friends. "Where do you guys think he's from? I've never seen anyone dressed like that before…"

"Ooh, ooh," Genta exclaimed while waving his arms around. "I bet he's from outer space!"

"That's impossible. The chances of there being intelligent humanoid life on other planets besides Earth are slim to none."

"Oh, yeah, Mitsuhiko? You got a better idea," Genta growled, only understanding the first part of the argument.

The other seated boy turned serious and raised a pointer finger. "As a matter of fact, I do. I hypothesize that he's from a parallel dimension, and somehow found himself here by accident."

"Conan-kun, it's time to come home now," Ran called out from across the playground. The girl's voice startled the small detective, and he lost control of the soccer ball.

Determined to maintain appearances, Conan feigned annoyance rather than welcoming her. "Already? But Ran-neechan, we were in the middle of something important!"

"It's after four o'clock already. I'd like you to come home and help me with dinner. Come on everyone, I imagine your parents will be expecting you soon, too."

"I'll be ready in a sec." Conan looked around for his ball. He finally found it in the hands of the weird-looking stranger. "Thanks, mister," he said taking it, with a smile.

Edward shrugged his shoulders as the boy returned to his friends.

Ran, Conan, and Ai dropped off the other three kids before going back to their own neighborhood.

"Ran-san, would it be okay if I joined you and Edogawa-kun for dinner tonight," Ai asked.

Ran looked down with a surprised expression at the smaller girl. It was an unusual request to come from her, but not an unreasonable one. "Sure," she replied with a smile.

The two children-who-were-not-children spent some time exchanging thoughts and theories about the man who had appeared from nowhere. They had dinner with Ran and Kogoro, after which the scientist left unceremoniously.

At about eight pm, there was a loud knock at the door. Conan went to answer it.

"Yo, Kudo," the man on the other side said when he saw who it was.

Conan grimaced. "You know, Hattori, one would think that after all this time you'd remember to not call me that, or at least not say it so loud."

Heiji considered the statement. "Maybe… but it's still fun to watch you squirm a little bit every once in a while."

"Conan-kun, who's that at the door?"

Conan answered her before the other detective had a chance to open his mouth again. "Don't worry about it, Ran-neechan, I'll be back in a minute." He crossed the threshold and pulled the door shut behind him. "Okay, spill it."

"I would tell you to chill, but I know every chance of that happening is gonna disappear as soon as you hear what I have to say." He paused to heighten the tension. "I caught wind that there was gonna be something going down tonight, and I thought you'd be interested in checking it out."

Conan glanced back at the closed door, and then back at Heiji. "Yeah, okay… just give me a sec." He went back inside and grabbed his suit jacket off the arm of the couch. "I'm going out for a little while, Ran-neechan. You don't need to wait up for me."

"You're WHAT? Who is that at the door?" She stomped over and pulled the door wide open to reveal Heiji, who was smiling sheepishly. "Hattori-kun…"

"Hey there, neechan! I just came by to see if Conan wanted to go for a walk."

"Oh… Well, have fun." They started walking. "Why don't you visit for a little while when you get back?" She couldn't tell if they'd heard her or not.

"So, who's involved in this thing that's 'going down'," Conan asked as he and Heiji walked over to the park.

"I don't know who the company exec is, but it seems like this is another blackmail case being organized by our favorite syndicate."

"The men in black!"

It was all Heiji could do to keep the smaller detective from running off in a fit of rage. "Let me go," Conan screamed.

Heiji held him up so that their eyes were on the same level. "Hate to say 'I told you so,' but you're easier to read than a children's book!" Conan glared, and crossed his arms, so the other man set him back on the ground.

"What do you propose to do about it," the smaller boy asked, voice still dripping with annoyance. He nearly fell over at what the Detective of the West said next.

"I haven't the foggiest… I've never faced them directly. But you have." He finished with a grin.

"Which is why you decided to pay me a visit…"

"Precisely."

"Well, let's go. It won't do us any good to just stand here."

Edward felt his stomach grumble. "Aw, man! This is even worse than the time Al and I were wandering in the desert outside Lior…" He thought that he would go looking for something to put in his stomach, when he started hearing voices. Curiosity drove him towards them, and as he approached he could just make out two men who were speaking frantically to each other.

The taller, blond man glanced around. "You'll remember to keep your guard up, right?"

The other man clenched his fists and glared at his companion. "Lay off, Gin! You know I've been more careful since we took care of that punk high school detective."

'Gin? That's an unusual name,' Edward thought. 'Something doesn't sit quite right with me about these guys…'

When the pair separated, Edward decided to follow the one who was not called Gin, using what he'd heard to determine where the action would be taking place.

Vodka approached his target. He held up a folder stuffed full of papers. "You got the money?"

A shaking middle-aged man emerged from the shadows of the trees. "It's r-right h-here…" The two exchanged packages, and the man flipped through the contents of the folder. "This is really the only copy?"

"Of course," replied Vodka. "When we say we're gonna do something, we do it. And that includes this."

Neither Edward nor the other man could see much, but there was the definite metallic click of a gun being cocked.

"Hey, I thought you said I had to bring the money or my life would be in danger," the man exclaimed.

"Hmm… well, I must have said it the other way to someone…" Vodka mocked. The other man started to slowly walk backwards.

The course of events gave Edward the feeling that he had no room for hesitation. 'Alchemists work for the people,' he remembered, followed quickly by 'oh, yeah… I'm not an alchemist anymore… oh well.' He started running. When he saw the gleam of metal emerge from the Bad Guy's pocket, his body acted automatically and he clapped his hands together.

Conan and Heiji saw a flash of bright light against the darkened sky. They stopped at the edge of the park. "Hey Kudo, what the hell do you think that is," the taller detective asked.

Not paying close enough attention to give an answer, Conan took off running towards what he thought to be the source.

Heiji sighed and followed his Tokyo-based counterpart. "I swear… sometimes your instincts really baffle me."

Edward looked down at his hands, also surprised at the energy being emitted from them. As its meaning dawned on him, he looked back up with a sly grin at the man dressed in black.

He moved his left hand away from the end of his right, extending a sharp blade over the back of his right hand. In one fluid motion, he advanced, raised his arm up, and slashed through the barrel of the gun. He slid to a stop on the other side and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry about that, it's a reflex…"

The pair of high school detectives reached the clearing in time to hear the last thing Edward said. They crouched behind a row of bushes (well… Conan didn't actually need to crouch, per se). Heiji took his hat off so that it wouldn't peek out over the top. When Conan looked over the bushes again, he prepared to jump right into the action.

"Oh no you don't," Heiji said, grabbing his companion by the scruff of the collar again.

"WHY. NOT," Conan growled.

Heiji knocked on the other's forehead. "Because you seem to always let your emotions take over when these guys are involved."

"What the hell are you," Vodka demanded.

Edward flexed and released his automail arm to make sure the impact with the gun hadn't affected its mobility. "Judging by the way I feel right now, I'd have to say I'm your worst nightmare."

Vodka turned to face Edward, deciding that it would be better in the long run to restrain the opponent that was actually fighting back. Now lacking an appropriate weapon, he tried to use brute strength to tackle the smaller man. Edward easily jumped over him, taking Vodka's hat with him by piercing through it with his blade.

The man dressed in black felt a breeze over his head. He reached a hand up, and then looked over at Edward, who was grinning with one hand on a hip and the other holding the hat. "Looking for this?"

Gin emerged from the bushes on the opposite side of the clearing from where Heiji and Conan were arguing. He was clearly disgusted by what he saw. "What the hell is going on here? Where'd the target go? I thought you said you could handle this, what are you playing around with a kid for?"

Edward exploded, furious that they couldn't tell that he was already eighteen. "WHOAREYOUCALLINGASRHIMPWHO'SASSMALLASAGRAINOFSANDTHATYOUCANBARELYSEE?"

Vodka pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know that's definitely something we didn't say."

In the midst of the confusion and diverted attention, the Black Organization's target had backed away from the clearing and ran as fast as he could until he returned safely to his own house.

End Chapter 2

Okay, so I guess the beginning of the story is kinda predictable. Please be patient with me!

v-v ...thank you