I really love the train scene~ I tried to use RinTheMagicalGirl's advice (thanks again btw!) and add more Deliylah action. Leave a review if there's anything you want me to change in my writing style! Enjoy~!
Lots of things made Deliylah twitchy. Military uniforms were one. Alchemy was usually another. State alchemists were a double whammy. And guns were one of the worst. So, of course, on their way to Central, most of the ride was spent with a gun in her face.
The hijacking had happened so fast nobody had any time to react. Thankfully nobody in their cabin had gotten injured, but nobody liked two men wielding a shotgun and a pistol on their train. Edward, of course, was snoring away in her lap, unaware of the dangers. And unfortunately, one of the hijackers had noticed.
"How can this brat sleep through all of this?" he muttered, poking Ed with the barrel.
"Sir, I really suggest you don't do that…" Deliylah warned him softly. "He's a very heavy sleeper, and he has a really bad temper…"
"Shut up, woman," he barked back, poking Ed again. Deliylah flinched and turned away. "Tch, wake up!" Ed continued to snore. "Why you… act more like a hostage, you little runt!"
That had done it. Deliylah gasped, Ed's boot stomping hard on the floor of the cabin. "I warned you sir… you really, shouldn't have done that…" A sort of aura emanated from Ed that made Deliylah slowly press herself against the wall.
The hijacker, on the other hand, seemed to not see how angry he had made the boy. "What? You got a problem or something?"
Ed clapped his hands together on the barrel of the shotgun, and after a bright light it wasn't a shotgun anymore. At least not a working one. The barrel had become twisted to resemble something more like the end of a french horn than a gun. Then with the slam of a boot the hijacker was face down on the floor. Al put his hand to his face, sighing. Suddenly, Deliylah heard the click of a gun, and the barrel against Ed's head.
"That was stupid, kid. We were ordered to kill all passengers." Deliylah could feel a short reference coming on. She also had no desire to warn the man about the mistake he was about to make. It was obvious they weren't going to listen to her. Of course, by the time Al could get his brother to stop wailing on the poor man, teeth were missing and blood was all over his face. Ed demanded an explain, and after the man had described his organization and where the rest of the hijackers were, Ed decided to play hero.
"I'll go above, Al, you take them from below, alright?"
"Fine, fine." Al was obviously exasperated by his brothers violent actions, but turned to the door.
"Deliylah, you come with me. Do you know how to train walk?"
She shrugged. "Uh, I suppose it can't be too hard…" She felt a twinge of irritation; she had once overheard one of the more racist townspeople accuse Ishvalans of being 'thieving gypsies who freeloaded and stole from the hardworking.' Deliylah had never stolen a thing in her life, and had felt incredibly offended hearing such a nasty thing about her own people. She pushed the feeling away, of course, because she knew that Edward was, at least hopefully, nothing like that.
"It may be more difficult than you think. Just follow my lead."
"O-Okay…"
"Wait," one of the passengers called out to them. "Who exactly are you guys?"
Ed grinned, half out the window. "We're alchemists!" The he put the rest of his body out the window and was nearly blown away, yelling something about wind pressure. Deliylah swallowed nervously; train walking was indeed dangerous.
By the time both Deliylah and Edward had managed to get out of the train and onto the roof, Deliylah had stopped trying to keep her hair in her face. Edward tried his best not to look, but he couldn't help it, the patchy brown-to-white pattern on her face was fascinating to say the least.
"Is there something wrong, Ed?" He grew hot in the face when he realized he had been staring for far too long.
"N-no, sorry, I didn't mean to stare, I just…"
She sighed. "It's ok, I don't mind, you're not like some of the people from Lior." She and Ed began carefully stepping their way towards the front of the train.
"The people of Lior?"
She nodded. "A lot of people I know are either Ishvalan, racist, or really, really good people. Most of the people in Lior fit into the second category. You, Al, the shopkeeper, and Rose fit into the third. People who fit into the first are pretty much all dead. At least the ones I knew…" She trailed off, and Edward saw an opportunity to change the subject.
"So… how are we gonna get the hostages?"
"I'm not sure, I don't even know where they are-" She cut off when she heard what sounded suspiciously like a gun cocking from right below her. "EDWARD, MOVE!"
Bullets flew all around her as she leapt forward and snatched Eds arm, pulling him forward. Both tumbled into the footwell in front of the cabin. Edward hissed, slipping his boot off. A bullet had lodged its way into his boot. He then gasped, pulling himself forward. "Deliylah, you're bleeding!"
"Huh?" She inspected herself and found that a bullet had grazed her leg. It was bleeding lightly, and the skirt was torn. Luckily it didn't hurt too much. "I'll be fine. We need to take care of the engine room before anything."
He nodded, taking one more glance at Deliylah's thigh. "Lets get back on top of the car, I have a plan."
Both waited by the windows, Deliylah on the left and Edward on the right. When he gave the thumbs up, she balanced herself by the entrance, waiting to dash in. After several thumps and yelps, she tipped in just in time to see the train drivers pounding on a hijacker with their shovels. Deciding they didn't need her help, she lifted herself back into the coal pile.
"Anything else I can do?"
"Just drive safely, please!" Ed's blond hair peeked from the other side. At that moment, the hatch to the first class car creaked open, and yet another gun-wielding man hauled himself up.
"There you are, you rodents!"
BANG.
Deliylah laid herself as flat as she could on the coal pile, trying to get herself out of the way, Ed seemed to have gone over the edge. He hauled himself back in and clapped his hands. Deliylah didn't see what happened next due to coal dust and transmutation light, but she knew it was loud. When the dust had settled, a large cannon had been formed from the coal, of which the train driver was not happy about.
"Hey! What are you doing to the tender car? It's got the coal and water for the whole train!" He scolded.
Ed apologized, then his face lit up with an idea. "Deliylah, how good are you and getting in those windows?"
"The car windows? I guess I can do it, why?"
"We need to find out which room the hostages are in. I'm gonna give the hijackers one chance to give up, then if they refuse I'll flood the car with water and flush them out. When I do that, you need to go in and close the door, otherwise the hostages will get a piece of it too," he explained.
Deliylah nodded. "Alright, I can do that." While Edward set up to speak to the hijackers, Deliylah quickly peaked in the windows of the car. Finally she saw a family that had to be the hijackers. The man, most likely the General, was bleeding heavily from the ear, part of which was missing. "There we are…" She quietly and slowly slid down to the side of the window, just out of sight, her nails poised under the window, ready to open it.
"Hello, hello, calling all hijackers. 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."
She fainly heard one of the hijackers, what she assumed to be the leader, yell back a retort. "What a joke! I don't know who you are, but as long as we have the hostages, we'll never give up!"
"Oh, my, you're still going to resist? Too bad. Talks over. Bye." Another transmutation caused the hijackers to gasp. "All passengers, please take cover." That was her cue. She dug the window open and threw herself inside, quickly slamming the car door shut and pressing into it with all her might.
"Run for your-!"
WOOSH.
Water surged against the door, the sound rushing in Deliylah's ears. Above the chaos she heard children drying and the hijackers screaming. She buried her face into her shoulder, digging her nails into the door.
Finally the rushing water died down, and Deliylah relaxed a bit. Running her fingers through her hair and fixing it back over her face, she turned to the four hostages in front of her. "Are you alright?"
The bleeding general nodded. "Y-Yes, but… who are you?"
"Just a friend of the Fullmetal Alchemists, thats all." Suddenly she fell forward, the door being thrown open behind her. In the doorway was a very large, very wet, and very angry man. She swore under her breath.
A splash in the hallway caught the man's attention. His cloak flew back to reveal an automail arm that looked like a giant gun, although in Deliylah's opinion Edwards arm was much better.
The man had to take several seconds to see who had just entered the hall. "Y-You're just a little brat!" Edward must have come down from the hatch. He brought his arm back, getting ready to fire, but Edward was faster. He drove the sharp sword-like weapon he transmuter onto his own arm through the cheaper metal, while Alphonse came up behind the hijacked and bludgeoned him with his fist, knocking him out cold.
"Are the other hijackers taken care of?"
"Mhm, don't worry," Al responded, turning to Deliylah. "Are the hostages ok?"
"I think so, but one of them is bleeding, part of his ear looked like it was missing." She looked back into the car, where the General was hugging his children and wife.
"They'll be fine," Edward reassured her. "Nice work, by the way. I wouldn't of thought of you as somebody who could move like that."
Eds statement took Deliylah by surprise. "Why not?"
"You cleaned altars and worked for a church, not really the most athletic job. And I'm not racist." He turned and began tying up the hijackers. Deliylah stood in awe, not quite used to strangers not treating her like 'just another dirty Ishvalan criminal.'
Their arrival in Central was greeted with cheers and lots of soldiers giving orders to take care of the hijackers tied up in the first class car. The platform smelled heavily of oil and people and trains. The General was treated by a first aid on the scene, and his family was cared for by several nice-looking soldiers. As nice as they all looked, Deliylah still felt very on edge being in the center of one of the most militaristic cities in Amestris.
"Hey, Fullmetal~" A greeting caught Deliylah's attention, although she was more intrigued by Edwards sudden sour expression more than the man who said hello. "Whats with the unhappy face?"
"Shit, if I had know it was in your jurisdiction, I wouldn't have helped!"
"Ed, you don't mean that!" Deliylah scolded.
The man laughed. He looked awfully familiar. "It's alright, young lady, he doesn't like me very much, but he's stuck with me anyway. I am his superior officer, after all." Deliylah was sure that she knew him, but she couldn't place it. A part of her almost didn't want to. The man's attention was pulled back to Edward. "Huh? I guess you're still not back to normal?"
Ed shook his head. "I'm researching the ancient texts, but nothing yet. We've been searching East city, but still…"
"I've heard the rumors. It seems like you're causing quite a commotion."
Ed scoffed angrily. "I guess you're still as nosey as ever."
The man shrugged. "Frankly, it's hard not to hear about you. So…," he turned back to Deliylah. "Who exactly is this young lady? I've never seen her before… I don't think…"
Ed put his hand on her shoulder. "We met her in Lior, and she decided to come along and help us. She also assisted us with this big mess here. So far she's proved herself to be a valuable ally."
Deliylah blushed, unable to hold back a bashful smile. "Aw, thanks~"
The man chuckled. "And what would this beautiful young woman's name be, by any chance?" He asked, reaching out his hand, which she took and shook.
"Deliylah, sir. Deliylah Hayes."
Recognition sparked in his eyes, but before he could say anything, the group's attention was diverted by the sound of screams. The leader that they had taken down earlier had cut through his bindings with a concealed knife stuck in the remains of what was left of his automail. The men who had been guarding him were on the ground, the source of the sounds. The lead hijacker was livid, baring his teeth with veins pulsing in his forehead and sweat dripping from his chin. He flung himself towards the man standing next to Deliylah.
"Please stand back Colonel," a woman who was escorting him tried to warn him, pulling out a gun, but the Colonel held his hand out.
"I'll handle this." He slipped a glove with an odd transmutation circle, holding up his hand and snapping his fingers. Her memory clicked when a large explosion rang out, fire sending the screaming man flying to the ground.
His name was Mustang. His rank had gone up since she had first met him, but she could easily remember his flames from a distance. He may not have been the state alchemist who picked her off the battlefield, but she remembered nearly everyone she met in the barracks.
When the hijacker was taken care of once again, Mustang turned back to Ed. "Well, lets get back to my office and you can brief me on your mission so far."
Ed groaned. "Do I have to?"
Al laughed. "Don't be spoiled, brother."
Deliylah chuckled half-heartedly, hoping to Ishvala that Mustang wouldn't recognize her, although something told her that he already did.
Bit late to back out now that you're in the heart of Central, Deliylah
Next chapter is probably gonna be long, so it'll take some time to write, sorry! Once again leave review and tell me how you liked it I'm dying to know!