CHAPTER 17

Mission There and Back Again

The Titan's and the Elrics were all in the lounge sore a bruised from their battle earlier. Their battle against the homunculi was more than nerve racking for the team and all were trying to regain their senses. Edward was currently absorbed in reading Raven's vast collection of books while his automail was being dried. He didn't put the limbs on yet because they were wet from the water in the basement. It was better that he didn't get electrocuted. Cyborg, who didn't like the fact that his leg was now inside a walking garbage disposal, was lying down on the couch having nowhere better to go. Al was watching him intently, as Cyborg started to fix a prototype leg for a replacement.

"Al, I know what you're thinking," Ed said to him, not looking up from one of the many books he was reading. "I am not getting a bionic leg." The book was in his lap as he turned the page awkwardly with his left hand.

"But come on brother! They look so neat! I am sure Winry would love to see automail like this!" Al said in a pleading voice.

"Winry would use me as a test subject with all of her crazy model she would make out of that. It would blow her mind with all that technology packed into it."

"I am sure half of the tech that I have in this leg wouldn't even work in your world. It seems like you don't even have computers yet let alone GPS and rockets," Cyborg added. Al looked down trodden as he almost forgot how limited their technology was.

"It would still be nice to see the look on her face if we showed her a bionic leg," he pouted.

"Yes it would," Edward said happily almost in a dream, but then a thought snapped him out of it. "Right after she hits me with a wrench about not coming home on time."

"Ed, you shouldn't have scheduled your tuning so close to a mission. You know you would have been late anyway."

"It was Colonel Bastard that assigned us that stupid mission in the first place!" Ed argued defensively. "How was I supposed to know that we'd somehow get magically teleported here?" there was a long pause after that. It was as if the entire room was sent into a single thought. None of them willing to say what was on their mind. Al finally spoke up.

"How are we going to get home?" he asked innocently, but his voice betrayed him. He already knew the answer. They didn't know.

"We don't have any circles to work off of since we didn't use one to get here. There is also the fact that we need a toll to get back across. I am afraid that with that stone inside of you, the Gate might think that you are its payment," Ed said gravely. He shut the book that he was reading and set it aside.

"What about the homunculi?" Al asked. "We just can't leave them here. They don't belong." After the battle, the Titans made their special containment units for the unconscious beings. They made sure that the units were smooth and seamless so that Gluttony couldn't get a bite at it. Wrath was being held in a dark force orb so that he couldn't transmute anything.

"We are going to have to take them back with us, as much as I hate to admit it. Unfortunately that would only increase the toll," Ed replied. Just then Starfire flew over to the two brothers holding two rather lumpy metal objects in her hands.

"You're limbs are fully dried! Let us put you back together!" she exclaimed. She started to shove the arm towards Ed, but he pushed her away in defense.

"Hold on! They don't go like that! Wait!" he said as the girl kept trying to help him by shoving the metal pieces in his face. Cyborg eventually, after laughing at his friend, leaned over and restrained Starfire.

"Star, let the kid do it himself," he chuckled. As Starfire backed away apologetically, Ed was going to give a retort on being called a kid, but refrained. He was just glad that the girl didn't smother him with his own limbs. Ed carefully pushed his asymmetrical body off of the couch and onto the floor in a sitting position. He laid the automail on the floor next to him as he took off his shirt. The Titans, like Beast Boy, Starfire, and Robin, who didn't see his automail ports before, all gave tiny gasps as they looked at where his limbs would have been. Several scars that even Cyborg didn't see before, lined his shoulders at where the surgery was done in order to get the ports plugged into his system. Ed carelessly tossed his sweat shirt aside and grasped the metal arm with his other. As he attached the limb, His face became distorted with pain and he let out a small grunt. The Titans stared in awe as he did the same with his leg. After all body pieces were intact, Ed lent back against the bottom of the sofa as sighed. Something started to prod his arm, and he looked up. Beast Boy was poking the metal as if he expected something to happen. Ed just gave him a glare.

"I think you might have connected it wrong. It doesn't look like you can move it," Beast Boy said to him.

"Ed can move it, but he has to wait until all of his nerves connect unless he wants to risk a complete shutdown," Al informed him. Beast Boy just gave him a confused look.

"It means I can't move for at least half an hour after connection," Ed said and he pushed beast Boy off of him.

"I guess that's one thing that bionics don't have to do," Cyborg said as he plugged his own leg into his body. As soon as he did so, he was able to stand up and stretch out. Ed turned green. "So who wants pizza?" Cyborg said changing subjects. All of a sudden, Raven gasped. This made everyone else gasp because they weren't so used to Raven doing anything as brash as a hiccup before. Everyone turned to see what made her cry out, except for Ed who tried to tilt his head back as far as it could go before nearly snapping off his neck.

"I got it," Raven exclaimed trying to regain her normal composure. She failed to do so however. "I know how to get you home!"