Edward Elric sat in a train, leaning on his arm with a bored look on his face. His brother, Alphonse, sat in silence across from him, and he had a secret.

"Look, Ed, we're almost there." Alphonse said carefully.

"Finally," The Fullmetal Alchemist grumbled. His commanding officer, Colonel Roy Mustang, had just sent him out on a mission to a small Eastern town. Apparently there had been some suspicious activity that included disappearances, break-ins, and in one case, the corpse of a twenty-five year-old man who died after being shot in the head.

Normally it wasn't something a state alchemist would handle, but most of the crimes had something to do with alchemy. The break-ins centered around an alchemic research lab. The dead man was an alchemist working in that building, and the disappearances focused around alchemists that worked in the building as well. There was also an increase in escaped prisoners. Whatever the criminal's goal was, it centered around alchemy.

Five different cases of break-ins, eight disappearances, six escaped prisoners, and one dead man, all over the span of two and a half months.

Ed went over the case in his head - it wasn't like he has anything better to do, anyway - and found himself annoyed at the lack of information. The colonel had mentioned that things had disappeared after the break-ins, likely stolen, but had decided not to specify what. It was just like Colonel Bastard to give Ed as little information as possible.

A small noise came from Alphonse's armor, jolting Ed out of his thoughts.

"Al," Ed asked incredulously. "Did your armor just meow?"

"Yes - I mean no! Not at all," Al said hurriedly.

Ed's eyes narrowed as another audible mew came out of the suit of armor.

"Aw, come on, she was so hungry..." Alphonse began, unable to deny the fact that there was a cat in his armor. "I couldn't just leave her there. She was lonely!"

"Al, you know we don't have the means to care for a cat."

The train slowed to stop as Al seemed to glare at his brother.

Edward got up and stretched. "C'mon, Al, it's time to go."

As soon as they left the train station, Ed stopped and turned to his quiet brother. "Alright, Al, let her free."

"But-"

"Alphonse, we can't take care of her. You gotta let her go."

"You're heartless, brother!" Alphonse proclaimed, rather loudly, but obediently opened up his armor.

Inside was not one, but two cats, nearly identical. Edward sighed loudly. "I thought there was only one!"

Alphonse gently took out the two kittens - they couldn't be more than a year old - and placed them carefully on the grass. "You can't pick up every stray cat you find, Al. Come on, we'd better find someplace to stay for the night," Edward said as the unhappy Alphonse closed his armor and watched as the two kittens clammered away.

Finding an inn proved to be an easy task. There where only a few in the town, but the first one the brothers found was nearly empty.

While most inns had a jovial atmosphere and crowds of people, Ed noticed that this one had only a few employees inside. The bartender looked up at Ed's entrance and smiled broadly. "Welcome, welcome!"

Ed frowned. "That's odd," he muttered. "Any particular reason this inn is almost empty?" He asked, loudly.

The bartender had a quizzical look on her face. "Surely you've heard? The disappearances have been keeping people on their guard as of late. It's driving away tourists and most people have been staying in their homes. It's rather bad for business, I'm afraid."

"Ah," Edward said, understanding. "Makes sense. We'd like a room for two, please."

Just as Edward and Alphonse where being directed to their room, one of the waitresses gasped and pointed outside. "It's... it's one of them criminals!"

Edward twisted around and saw a cloaked figure walking hurriedly down the street, the direction Ed knew the laboratory was in. Ed smirked and took off to the door, calling for Al to follow.

"Coming, brother," Al yelled after him.

As soon as the cloaked figure heard the inn door open, he twisted around to see the two young alchemists running after him. He cursed loudly and ducked into an alleyway. Ed smirked as he turned and followed. it was a dead end. Ed rolled his shoulders. "Didn't expect this mission to end so soon," he muttered confidently. Using alchemy, he turned his automail arm into a deadly blade. He strode forward, and Al stood still at the entrance to the alley, prepared if the criminal attempted to escape.

"Were are you headed in such a rush?" Ed hissed. "And that's a strange choice of outfit. How about you come with me?"

"I don't think so," the cloaked man shouted, and reached into his cloak. Al shouted out a warning as a he pulled out a small, silver object that shined wickedly in the moonlight. A gun.

Ed ducked aside to dodge as the man fired. Ha, missed. Al cried out Ed's name, which Ed found rather odd, but he supposed that Alphonse had been startled by the shot. Ed smirked and charged raising the blade he'd transmuted on his arm.

That's strange, his legs suddenly felt weaker, like they might buckle beneath him. His charge became significantly slower when he drew near the cloaked figure. Why was the man smirkng so broadly?

The man easily sidestepped and dodged. Ed felt a strange lurch of neasua and he stumbled at the end of the charge, automail arm still raised. "Why-" he began, and then he looked down and saw blood blooming through a bullet-sized tear in his shirt, right under his right ribcage.

He staggered forward and brought his left hand to cover the wound. "Well, shit," he hissed as blood soaked through his shirt.

The bullet hadn't missed, afterall.