It was mid afternoon, the sun shining down on the backs of Edward and Alphonse, Ed wary from the last mission, exhausted and irritable with their lack of success.
``Ugh, I hate having no luck with the philosophers stone'', growled Ed as he scratches his head in frustration, kicking a stone down the street in anger.
``Well, we did know this was gonna be a hard road, right brother?'', Alphonse tried to comfort his older brother as he walked beside him, carrying his suitcase over his shoulder.
``Yeah, but it would be nice if our leads were true'', Ed grumbled under his breath, walking passed a girl he didn't notice at first. She was huddled against the wall, wearing what seemed to be a ragged dress that was barely hanging onto her shoulders and a cloak that hid her form well from those not paying attention. Unfortunately for her, Alphonse was paying close attention for Ed.
``Hey! Are you ok?'', Alphonse inquired with great worry, kneeling beside the girl quickly, startling the girl from him taking notice to her.
``Al, whats wrong?'' Ed had stopped walking and looked back at him from over his shoulder. He wandered over to him and peered down at the girl, whom shied away from his gaze.
``I-I.....'', she stuttered as she backed up against the wall, quickly scanning around to find an exit, trying to keep her arm under the cloak and out of sight, but Ed started becoming more alert and caught her arm that she tried to hide from sight.
``Hey, let me take a look at that'', he murmured as he gently guided her arm out from under her cloak only to discover that it was automail, like his but it was a very rough design, as it were rushed and not given lots of care or thought on the users needs. He notices that she attempted to hide the fact it was automail by clumsily wrapping it with bandages, but pieces of metal were shining through.
``Do you have any family?'', Alphonse asked with worry laced in every word and every action he made as he gently sets the case down to help when he can.
The girl looked up at them with wide eye, the hood of the cloak falling off her head, they now seeing her long black hair that was tangle and matted to her head, grease and dirt mixed into her locks of hair, here facial structure very familiar to their eyes, but they can't pin the similarities. But Edward suddenly grows slightly irritable with he looks as he grows impatient with he silence and that she struggles against him.
``P-please, don't. They'll find me.......I'm here to find my brother and I can't get caught'', she whimpered softly, trying to pull her arm away from him, swallowing hard in heavy fear.
``Who will find you?'', Edward pressed as he pulls her closer, keeping a firm grip on her arm, refusing to let go so easily.
``The ones' who took me.....'', she whispered softly in a frightened manor as she continues to fight against Ed, becoming terrified of his fierceness.
``Whats your name? We could help you'', Alphonse reassured as he takes her free hand and tries to calm her down, trying to keep her from running. But his efforts were in vain as a man in a dark suit comes around the corner, looking around the yard in a mild panic and spots the girl between Ed and Al. He turns and hollers to two more men who seemed to be searching as well, ``She's over here men!!''
Ed looks over at the shouting men and then glances back at the trembling girl in front of him and sees her look of horror of being found. He sighs, grimacing slightly as he stand, releasing her from his grip. ``Alphonse, you know what to do.....''
``Right! Be careful brother'', Alphonse nodded to his brother before turning to the girl and picking her up quickly, running off with him in his arms. She gasps in surprise and pain, trying to hang on as best as she can.
``Wh-what're you doing?!'', she looks up at him in shock, completely taken aback.
``Taking you somewhere safe!'' He ran through the streets as fast as he could, being careful not to toss you around, heading straight to Central Command, taking inventory of her injuries, not realizing how truly hurt she was with the cloak hiding her body. He races as fast as he could while making sure he's not followed.
Edward stands before the three men that were searching for the girl, intending to stop their pursuit at all costs.
``Out of the way, half pint! That girl is ours!'' the leader growled at him, moving to pass him quickly to pursue Alphonse and the girl. Ed, his anger boiling over the breaking point, grabs the man's arm, a few anger mark littering his face as he looks up at him.
``Half pint, huh?'', he chuckles darkly and claps his hands, transmuting some of the earth to form a hand, launching the man to the far side of town before turning to his companions and does some sparing practice with them, not holding back at all. After a bit, Ed started to tie up one of them to a post near a police station and turned to find the other was starting to crawl away from him, trying to sneak away. Ed catches him by the shoulder and gives him an evil smile.
``Where do you think you're going? The fun's just begun~'', he gives him a dark grin as he ties him up as well and starts to drag him to the command center. The man thrashed and squirmed, trying to get free while Ed starts to think out loud. ``I have a lot of questions for you my friend, you best be cooperative~''
The man pales and looks up at him weakly in fear. ``I can't tell y-you anything.....''
``Well them I'm sure the government won't have a problem with sentencing you to a good 30 years for kidnapping'', Ed laugh manically as he continues to drag him to command. ``Too bad I can't lower the sentence. It's in your best interest to be honest you know.''
The man looks at him weakly and sighs heavily, caving into him and starts to murmur, ``.....we took her when she was young because she had high potential to being a great alchemist......and also having good body chemistry to becoming an experiment to see if becoming a chimera is possible.''
Ed frowns deeply and gets right into his face, whispering with malice dripping from his tongue, ``Last question, who's family did you take her from?''
The man groans and looks down as he whispers weakly, ``Mustang....the Mustang family.....''
At the mention of the name of his superior, his eyes narrowed as he whispers, ``Sorry, I lied. I've got one more question.'' He slowly and suddenly lifts the man up into the air and looks at him dead in the eyes. ``Did you do anything to her? The man in front of me, did you do ANYTHING to her?''
``N-not me.... she was taken to a lab.... I think they turned her into some kind of chimera she?s the only one who stayed human and has stayed human..... But that's all I know!'' the man swallows thickly at Ed's fierceness. Ed nods and drops him to the ground, smoothly untying him.
``You're free to go on the condition I never see your face again and you go on to an honest living'', he growls softly then suddenly grabs him by the collar and gives him a deadly glare.
``Now beat it'', he shoves the man into the dirt as he nods vigorously and turns, scrambling off out of the city. Ed sighs at all the new information and rubs his hand through his hair. He grabs his suitcase and starts for Central Command, figuring that's where Al went.
