“Immortality huh?” Ling said carefully measuring the two new comers in his mind.

“Come to think about it there were some other guys asking that some time ago.” Mei said carefully.

“Is it the new style?” Ling asked rhetorically. “Why are you searching for that?” he asked.

“Personal reasons” Edward replied.

“How stupid” Ling said his eyes glancing to the side.

Edward smiled slightly “I‘m being serious.” he said.

“And this is your idea of asking people for help? Interrogating them at knife point?” Ling asked motioning with his head to the strangers that still held the dagger to his throat and a sword in Mei’s armor.

“I don’t think so!” he said swinging his left arm backwards and with his right hand reaching for the dagger.

“Brother don’t fight!” Mei cried out looking at him.

The man [sexist] however jumped into the air and did a flip that somehow ended with him kicking Ling in the face.

“You arrogant child!” the other person said. Judging from their voice they sounded female and a bit old. “Show some respect to a member of the Amestris military!”.

“You shouldn’t point swords at people.” Mei said grabbing the sword with her hand.

The woman snapped her hand back and said “So you wish to fight as well?”.

“Wait one mom-” Mei was cut off as she reached towards the lady who in turn flipped around her arm, grabbed it, and pinned her to the ground next to her brother.

“Oh man they move like acrobatics. Must be the fighting style from Amestris” Ling said.

“But one thing is certain brother. They are not tougher then teacher” Mei said getting up.

The lady and the boy ran towards them.

Edward blocked his eyes from the sunlight as he watched another part of the town blow up. “Man, those two sure are hot headed.” he said to no one.

He turned to the waiter and said “Excuse me can I please get one more of your desserts? Just put it on the siblings tab.”.

Ling jumped slightly off a pipeline and drew his sword and proceeded to attack the other boy.

The boy however was fast enough to dodge every attempt and seemed to have hidden armor in her suit so that when he did connect with him there seemed to be no damage.

The next time his sword thrust forward he grabbed with in his hands and twisted it so that it became loose and caused him to drop it.

Aggravated slightly he punched forward with his left arm.

However when he almost hit him the other boy wrapped his own arm around his and proceed to bend it.

‘Oh no.’ Ling realized. ‘He’s going to break it’. Thinking fast he flipped onto his back and with his foot pushed the other guy off.

They both straitened up but the other immediately got into position to fight once more…yet he didn’t make a single move towards him. He seemed to be waiting for Ling to move first.

‘So he’s not trying to take my life and is only attacking when I am. And the way he moves. How am I supposed to fight him?’ Ling thought to himself.

“Coming out of nowhere and demanding information about the Philosophers Stone and immortality. Seriously what is that guy thinking?” Ling asked the other boy.

The boy didn’t answer but he did start slightly.

“Yeah that guy back there. That loose and stupid one.” Ling continued. “What is he thinking” Ling asked.

The other boys eyes seemed to narrow and before Ling could do anything he was in front of him with his two fingers pointing at him, next thing he had somehow pushed him around his eyes with enough force to throw him back. However Ling also managed to throw a kick at him and then pin him to the ground.

“Looks like I just found your weakness” Ling said smugly.

The other boy didn’t say anything but stare at him.

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Mei was thrown upside down into a warehouse. “I hate fighting. And she is moving so fast I can barely keep up” she said to herself.

Hers and hers brothers friend Usagi [ok in one translation Paninya’s name was Bunny so to make it less difficult for myself I followed that. And if the name Usagi sounds familiar its Sailor Moons real name in Japanese.] Jumped in from the hole in the roof and landed lightly beside Mei “I was told to fix that roof of this place. What are you doing Mei” Usagi asked.

“It’s a long story” Mei answered.

They both got up and as soon as that the lady came through a couple boxes and rushed towards them as they both ran.

“I think I get it now” Usagi said looking behind them.

“Good saves me the time to explain” Mei said. She looked at the other girl and asked “Hey Usagi can I ask you for a favor?”.

‘How strange’ Pinako thought to herself. ‘That suit of armor is strangely like…’.

“It‘s gonna cost ya Mei” Usagi said.

“Just put it on our tab” she answered lightly.

“Kay” Usagi said as they both turned around. She balanced one leg behind her on a fire hydrant.

“You think that one alley will increase your chances of winning?” Pinako yelled at them.

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Ling punched the other guy in the ribs with his elbow and heard a satisfying crack.

The other boy stumbled slightly and dropped the dagger he was holding.

“Your not so tough at all are you?” Ling asked looking as he the boy hugged his arm around his rib cage. “To have a subordinate like this I guess that Blondie isn’t that big of a deal himself” Ling taunted.

The other boy cracked his knuckles and proceeded to rush at him and attack.

‘At first this guy fought like a skilled warrior’ Ling thought to himself as he blocked another kick ‘But then he gets all hot headed when I insult Edward. And then his attacks become more predictable. And opening is made.’ . From the corner of his eyes he could see his sword laying there a few feet to the side. Ling smirked. “What? Mad because I said the truth? This guy should just pack himself up and go straight home since he isn’t man enough to fight his own fights” the boy growled slightly and punched forward. Ling ducked and grabbed his sword. “Let‘s have a look at your face now shall we?” and from many practices he swung deep enough to cut the strings from the mask but not harm the person.

At the same time that the mask fell off the boy threw forward another dagger, which thankfully hit his automail arm, and shielded his…no her face. Her!?!

“A girl” Ling cried in surprise as the dagger fell into his arm, through the bandages.

Before he could react the girl had grabbed something from her belt and whipped out the string from it and threw it at him.

In front of Ling’s stricken face was a bomb.

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Usagi lifted up her pant leg to reveal a hole in her automail leg. In front of Pinako’s surprised face was a bomb.

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The civilians of Tosshin Tani all shook in surprise and some yelled slightly when two different parts of their home town were shaken and two small dust clouds formed and rose into the sky.

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Pinako flipped in the air and landed lightly on a sign that proclaimed ‘Tosshin Tani’ and balanced on it with one hand on top of the sign.

‘She had a bomb hidden in her automail leg. That seems like a good idea but how did she manage to do it?’ Pinako wondered to herself, something however caught her attention.

The ground that Mei was standing on was rising with her on it. Once she was up to level with the older woman she quickly pinned her to the sign and swiftly drew another transmutation on the sign and activated it causing ropes to erupt from it and tie themselves around the lady.

The lady struggled. “Is this how your country treats your elders” she asked struggling against the bindings.

“Elderly” Mei asked. She reached out and gently unhooked the mask that covered the ladies face.

The mask had hidden her age from everyone. If Mei was to guess she would have said that the woman was in her twenties, thirties the latest, seeing the way she moved around.

The woman really was short, her hair was pinned up in a ponytail that seemed to defy gravity, and if she stood up then Mei doubted that she would even come up to Ling’s waist. She also seemed as old as hers and Ling’s grandfather, who was pushing seventy.

Her thoughts went back to her brother. She turned around slowly on the ground she had raised and said to herself “I wonder how brother is?”.

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Winry walked over the crumbled remains of a building covering her mouth with her hand from all the dust in the air.

‘I definitely overdid it.’ she thought to herself. She noticed a metal hand peeking from the ground. The boy had automail, like Edward. She reached down to grab the arm and pull the boy out of the rubble. ‘Oh man. After all the times I tell Edward to not be so hot headed I go and do this. I really am a hypocrite’.

She grasped the arm and pulled. To her surprise all that came up was the arm, all of a sudden, in a blur, Ling came from behind rocks and quickly tied her up in ropes before she could react.

“You know you shouldn’t play with bombs little girl” he said as he stooped forward and picked his arm up and looked at her “If that was someone else they would have gotten really hurt” he concluded.

“You gave up your own arm?” Winry asked looking at the remains of his right arm.

“An automail that doesn’t move is just deadweight. I cut it off and used it as bait. I always have extra rope with me incase of something, well I never thought something like this would happen but just incase.” he concluded.

“So what do I do now” Ling asked himself looking down at Winry.

“Give…give me my mask back” she said blushing slightly.

“Hm?” Ling said.

“I‘m telling you…you to give me back the mask you broke” she stammered the blush highlighting her face. It was obvious that she had never lost in a fight. Her blue eyes were wide and had a shiver of fear in them.

“You know that you are not really in any position to be giving commands here you know?” Ling told her.

“Brother” Ling heard Mei’s voice call out. Looking behind him he saw Mei walking to him along as Usagi and a…old lady tied up on his shoulder.

“Your arm is messed up again brother. Ran Fan isn’t going to be happy about that.” she said noticing his arm as she deposited the old lady on the ground next to Winry.

Ling sighed. “I don’t think my body can keep up with everything we‘re going through.” he said looking at his arm. Then he looked over to the girls in black.

“So tell us. Why is Edward looking for the Philosophers Stone and immortality?” Ling asked the two girls who turned their heads to the side to ignore them.

“Hello there!” a voice came from behind them. Whirling around Ling and Mei saw Edward walking towards them, and judging by the large grin on his face he was once more smiling nice guy.

“Where did you come from” Mei asked him. What Ling wanted to ask them was how they hid themselves from his sense.

“I‘m sorry about that you two” he said motioning to the girls behind him. A mad look crossed the younger girls face for a moment until Edward said “They usually aren’t as hot headed as you saw. You must have really rifled them up.”.

“If that’s an apology then that’s the worst one I have ever heard” Ling said.

“I never said I or they would apologize.” Edward said blinking his eyes.

“Just go back to your own country already then” Ling said.

Edward stretched his arms over his head and then crossed them behind his head “Well I can’t go back until I finish my goal and that didn’t happen yet.”.

All of a sudden a crowd appeared behind them. All sorts of people were complaining about the damage they had caused and the waiter of the restaurant they were at was asking for them to pay for the bill.

“Wait a minute its these guys who are responsible for all that” Ling said motioning to Edward and his subordinates.

Edward jumped from where he was standing away while saying “I no speak this language”, flipped on some rocks and disappeared.

Mei turned around and exclaimed “Those two girls in black are gone too!”.

Ling turned around. True to her word the ropes were on the ground and empty.

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“I‘m sorry Ed, I couldn’t really focus once he started saying those things about you” Winry said blushing.

Edward smiled slightly as he looked at her “It‘s ok Win. The fact that we met them means we accomplished something today.”.

Pinako looked at Edward as she slid her pipe from her pocket, put some tobacco in it, lit it, and put it in her mouth and said “Did you notice that Edward? The younger girl? She was in a suit of armor which was empty just like-”

“I know granny” Edward cut her off.

Pinako fell silent as Edward looked into the sky thinking.

“The older one and maybe his sister definitely know something” Edward said.

“About the Stone and gaining immortality?” Winry asked.

“Maybe” Edward replied licking his upper lip in thought.

“We should follow them. It seems like the best method as of now.” Edward said.

“You would actually bow down to them and play that idiot?” Winry asked skeptically.

“If it means gaining the information I need then yes.” Edward answered. “However if they do not give me anything we will take it by force.” he said getting up.

Pinako put out her pipe and obediently stood up.

“Ed?” Winry said.

Edward glanced over at her and asked “Yeah?”.

Rubbing the back of head slightly she mumbled “That boy destroyed my mask and…” before she could finish her sentence Edward clapped his hands and placed them on the ground. When he stood up he held an identical mask to what she wore before.

She smiled at him before carefully placing her hair back and slipping the mask on.

“Let’s go” he said as he started to walk. Pinako and Winry followed behind him loyally.