Author's Note: A big thank you to those who reviewed! :D Since you've asked, I've no pairings in mind so far :O Just going by how I feel as I write :) For those who are interested, the scene where Nami fell into Weatheria can be found in the anime, Episode 418. I kept the main ideas there as a guideline, but the rest of the story is improvised. As for Ed, I picked up from the FMA storyline somewhere around Chapter 100 of the manga. Suggestions are certainly welcome! So then, chapter 3's here, so read, enjoy and review! Thank you

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arakawa Hiromu. One Piece belongs to Oda Eiichiro.

Chapter 3: A Short Spar and A Newspaper

An orange-haired lady stood on the beach, spinning a blue pole called the Clima Tact. Roughly fifteen meters away from her was the youth with piercing golden eyes. Their clothes swayed with the strong wind that was blowing.

"This will be a good time to test out the upgrade on Clima Tact," she thought aloud.

Let's see… The engineer, Meso-san, said that the extra knots he installed in the Clima Tact will allow it to store up power faster and release different levels of attack power if I want to, right? Gyah where're the knots? Hmm… oh yea, here they are!

Nami dismantled the three-piece bo-staff and extracted the yellow, white and green ropes within. They were knotted several times. The knots or each rope, when undone, would release differing levels of power in wind, electricity and water seeds respectively. In this way she could more precisely adjust the levels of attack power she wanted to unleash. The maximum attack power had also increased greatly since the adjustment.

Weatheria's engineering team had offered to help upgrade her weapon in exchange for her help around the island, even though Nami felt that she didn't really do anything.

"Just kick the World Government's butts when you get outta here, ya hear us?" they had chortled after passing the baton back to her.

"Heh, Edward, show me what you've got, or you'll be eaten up like strawberry shortcake!" she said.

"Heat Ball, and also, Cool Ball!" she said as transparent red and blue spheres began to float out of the ends of the poles.

Several veins popped out on Edward's forehead on hearing 'short'.

"You want to fight!?" he shouted. "I don't usually fight girls, but if you keep spreading these horrible lies, I'm not going to hold back!!!"

"Heheh. You're so easy to read, Ed." she grinned.

"You look like a fighter to me. Show me what you can do, why don't you?" taunted Nami.

"Don't regret it, you overgrown orange!" He seethed as he dashed forward.

Within two meters of her, his gloved hands clapped together in a practised motion and slapped the sandy floor. Flashes of blue lightning crackled as they rushed forward in the sand, which suddenly rose up to form a giant fist.

Sensing danger, Nami instinctively backstepped a couple of times, just in time to dodge the enormous hand that would have punched her right into the sky. Her eyes widened.

So his combat ability is pretty strong. Looks like I was right. So his ability to mend broken cups can be used to fight too eh? Heheh. Interesting. But I'm not gonna lose to you, man. I got my pride as a pirate too. One of the Straw Hat Pirates. She thought as she quickly undid two knots and chucked the now triangular-shaped Clima Tact to the cloud that had formed from the interaction between the Heat Balls and Cool Balls.

"Thunderstorm Tempo!" she yelled. "Plus two knots. Take that!"

Lightning crashed down from the thunderclouds, destroying the giant fist in a flash. More lightning continued to strike in the area, causing Edward to move backward to avoid being hit. Fortunately he moved, for at the next moment, rain began to fall from the same clouds. If he was drenched while in the range of those clouds, chances of getting hit were much higher. Water conducts electricity, after all.

"Heh, not too bad, are you?" he acknowledged. "But I'm better!" In another mad rush forward, he clapped his hands together and slapped the ground, subsequently pulling a glass spear out of the whirling sand.

"Not done yet! Don't forget the knots! Ha!" Nami cheered, as the stored gusts of wind blew the thunderclouds further and made them expand larger, widening the range of the attack.

"Gooo!! Get him!" she shouted, as Edward's eyes widened in horror.

The looming thunderclouds were getting bigger and closer. There was nowhere to run.

Shit! He thought. I'm not gonna let you get me like that. I'm not done yet!

Thinking of the appropriate alchemical equations, the golden-haired youth quickly clapped his hands together and slammed them onto the sand as he felt the energy rush through his body. Layers of dome-shaped cement began to rise and form above him, acting as multi-layered shields.

As soon as the clouds grew to their maximum range of about 15 meters in diameter, lightning crashed down onto the shields as soon as they were formed. The shields were destroyed as easily as the giant fist before was. Huge clouds of dust erupted from the explosion.

Having anticipated a forceful rebound, Nami had placed herself just outside the range of the thunderclouds. Sprays of debris flew her way as she lifted her hands up to shield herself from the blast.

As the dust went into her throat, she started to cough intermittently. Gradually but surely, the dust cloud began to settle. Nami looked up.

Sorry, Edward. I had to do what I had to do. I hope he's not injured too badly. She thought as she lifted up a foot to step forward. Her eyes peered through the cloud. Where is he? Lying down somewhere, is he..?

The dust settled. The boy was nowhere to be seen.

Wha, what? Were her thoughts before she felt a sharp tip poke the back of her neck.

"Yo. Checkmate." Came a mellow voice that she only knew too well by now. The alchemist had won. His glass spear was pointed directly at the back of Nami's neck.

"You almost got me there, lady. Thank goodness I ran away in the midst of all that dust. Ha." He grinned as he lowered his spear. "You're not too bad, eh?"

"Wow." Nami said, as she let out a whistle. "Speak for yourself. You're not too bad either, eh?"

"Truce?" he asked.

"Yeah, truce." She agreed.

The two shook hands and began walking back to the town.

End Fight (:

Overhead, a tired-looking pelican flew by as something dropped from its beak. It continued to fly in the direction of the town.

"What's this?" Edward asked as the 'something' dropped into his hands. It was the most recent copy of the Grand Line Times. Attached to the back of the paper was a slightly faded copy of the previous issue of the same paper.

"That's the Grand Line Times, the newspaper for anyone travelling these seas. It only gets published when there're newsworthy stories. But what I've heard is that the content is heavily censored by the World Government, ya know? They only allow the publishing of news reports which put themselves in a good light. Tch." Nami said as she let loose a snort of disgust.

"But this time, it may help us to get the information that we want. I doubt that the incident at Sabaody Archipelago could be fully covered up. They might give some kind of a fake cover story, but at least it's information we'll get. Let me take a look at that." She tucked the pieces of her Clima Tact away before putting her hands out to take the paper.

"Ehh… so the media here assimilates information by birds? Weird stuff, I gotta say. Kind of strange, though. Why'd they send two different issues in one delivery? Shouldn't the delivery have been done separately? The one at the back looks older."Edward mused.

"Ha. I've heard from Ooki-jii, Meso-san and the rest of the people here, that Weatheria sometimes receives outdated copies of the newspaper. Because it's a Sky Island, I guess it's harder for the delivery boys, the pelicans heh, to fly all the way up here from wherever they came from. That little one over there does seem pretty tired to me. Speaking of weird, you haven't seen anything yet." The two ends of her cherry lips curved upward as she thought of the Den-Den Mushi. Wait till he sees the Den-Den Mushi. If he doesn't know about anything here, he can't have known about those. Hoho.

Grabbing the more recent newspaper, her eyes widened in shock as she saw the headlines – AFTERMATH OF WHITEBEARD WAR AT MARINEFORD: WHITEBEARD AND FIRST-MATE PORTGAS D. ACE EXECUTED. STUNNING VICTORY FOR WORLD GOVERNMENT

Her mind started to whirl into a mess of inner voices.

Portgas D. Ace. Ace, that's Luffy's brother who we met at Arabasta. What do they mean he's executed? He can't be. He was so strong. There must be a mistake somewhere.

Shirohige, Whitebeard. Edward Newgate, said to be the strongest pirate in the Grand Line after Pirate King Gol D. Roger. Executed? Dead? Impossible. What the hell?

Before she could organize her thoughts, another ominous thought entered her mind.

Luffy. Where… what… does he know about this? Oh my god, no. If he knew, he would… he would… no he wouldn't. Luffy…

Nami's legs turned wobbly and her hands slipped as the newspaper fell to the ground. She would have collapsed to the ground, if not for the person at her side who held her when she showed signs of falling.

"Nami? What's wrong?"he enquired.

"Nami? Nami-san? Are you okay?" There was no response from the girl who had been struck by a severe case of shock.

"Nami? Nami?" he shook her shoulders gently at first, then more violently until she began to stir.

"Wh- what?" her voice quavered. "I- I- I'm f-fine."

She shook her head to clear it. "I have to read the rest of this. It- It- It could be i-important."

With trembling hands, she picked up the fallen newspaper. By her side, a worried young alchemist held her gently in case she was going to fall. Her mind calmed down as her breathing slowly reached tandem with the one holding her. She continued to read.

Out on the Grand Line

On several other Islands on the Grand Line, a swordsman, a cook, a reindeer, a sniper, an archaeologist, a shipwright and a skeleton were experiencing the same kind of shock.

Author's Note: Hello, people! I just had to add another AN here at the end, though I don't know how many of you will actually read this. Rahhh I've been so depressed because close to nobody's reviewing my chapters . So, please, review!! !! !! :p