First Move from the Enemy

Something I did out of random boredom

The rain was falling hard on London, Edward Elric and his younger brother Alphonse Elric had been fighting a strange but powerful man who had somehow learned about the alchemy from their world, he said that his name was James, but nothing more. As the battle heated up, Ed has lost the use of his auto-mail arm while Al's right half had been shattered like glass, his right leg gone, the two had been fighting so hard to protect Olivia, a little girl they had befriended along with her father.

 

        “If this won't convince that toy-maker to work for me then I guess, matters will be taken into my own hands,” James said out loud, Ed held his right arm, then he saw James pull out a gun and took aim right at his head.

 

        “NO!! Ed get up! Run for it!” screamed Al, Olivia staying at Al side, too scared to move.

 

        “Look, just promise me that you won't hurt Al or Olivia once you kill me. They have nothing to do with this,” Ed told James.

 

        “What are you saying brother?! Forget us and just run!!” Al screamed again.

 

        “A gentlemen never goes back on his word, they will remain unharmed, but you my dear boy, won't be so much,” said James as he placed the barrel of the gun right on Ed's forehead, James gave a smirk, Olivia couldn't take this anymore, she ran from Al's side and threw herself in front of Ed, hugging him tightly, both were taken back by this.

 

        “Please don't kill him!! He didn't do anything to you! Don't kill my brother!!” begged Olivia as tears streamed down her face.

 

        “Touching, a little sister willing to die for her big brother, but I'm afraid that it doesn't work that way, now move,” sneered James.

 

        “NO!!! I won't!!!” screamed Olivia. Ed placed his left arm around the upset girl, he looked at her with a kind look in his eyes.

 

        “Look it's alright, I need you to stay with Al, and your dad needs you the most, I'll be sure to say hi to your mother,” Ed told her calmly.

 

        “PLEASE!!!! Ed don't do this!! You're my big brother!!! I don't want to be alone!!!” Olivia screamed again, the gun clicked, James was getting ready to fire the weapon. Ed shielded Olivia as best he could with his left arm, she clinged to Ed tightly. The look in Ed's didn't show fear, Olivia let a few sobs out, Al couldn't stand to lose both of them.

 

        “You don't have to worry, the girl will stay alive, but this will forever be burned into her mind,” James told Al.

 

        “OLIVIA!!! ED!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!” screamed Al, a gun shot went off, but it wasn't the gun James held, instead it had been shot clean out of his hand, James held his hand in pain, he looked over and there stood a sixteen year old red headed girl, it was Sarah, had to come to the rescue with others.

 

        “You place that gun to ether of their heads again, and I'm going to blow your brains all over this district,” stated Sarah, her dog a German Shepherd she called Winchester was snarling, showing his teeth as he stood between James, Ed and Olivia.

 

        “What the?! Sarah, you saved us!” exclaimed Ed.

 

        “I had a feeling something was wrong when you both didn't come back, you guys alright?” asked Sarah, still keeping a hold on her gun.

 

        “Take a look at Al and you tell me if we're alright!” snapped Ed, Sarah looked over and saw Al's shattered body and gasped.

 

        “You guys are lucky I showed up, the others are coming, in fact I can hear BlueStar now,” Sarah told them.

 

        James turned back to Ed and Olivia, he pulled out a knife, long and thin. Al saw it, he looked at Sarah.

 

        “Sarah, help brother!!” yelled Al, Sarah turned and saw the dagger, she called for Winchester to attack James with a high pitched whistle, Winchester charged at James, but he kicked the dog aside and with a yelp Winchester fell to the ground.

 

        “Oh no! Winchester!!” screamed Sarah as she ran over to her fallen friend.

 

        “Now then, where was I?” said James, Ed held Olivia tighter, he felt her also clinging to him as tight as she could, her eyes still closed.

 

“Oh yes,” James added as he raised his dagger, as Ed braced for the cold steel to hit his flesh, but he heard a horses battle cry, he looked up and saw Moondacner standing in front of him, and BlueStar rearing up in front of James as if to say back off.

 

        BlueStar brought his hooves down so hard that it sounded like thunder when he landed, he pawed at the ground, snorted and stared James down. BlueStar had James cornered up against a wall, Hiram was not far behind them.

 

        “Are you both alright?” Moondacner asked Ed and Olivia.

 

        “Something in my auto-mail came out, I can't use my arm, Olivia's fine, she's just shaken up,” Ed answered her.

 

        “Can you stand?” Moondacner asked him again.

 

        “Yeah, but maybe you should call off BlueStar before he kills that James guy,” answered Ed.

 

        “If you come anywhere near these children again, I WILL KILL YOU BY BASHING YOUR SKULL INTO A THOUSAND PEACES!!!!” BlueStar snarled at James. Then he turned to the others.

 

        Olivia broke out of Ed's grasp and ran into Hiram's arms, she hugged her father tightly and let the tears flow, and Hiram hugged his daughter just as much, he thought he was going to lose her.

 

        “Daddy....I....I was so scared....but I couldn't let him kill Ed.....I was....I was just so scared!” wept Olivia.

 

Hiram just held his crying daughter, and tried to consul her as best he could, the rain still coming down, Ed, Sarah and Al just looked on, unaware that James had slipped away, but by the time they all noticed he was long gone, Moondacner helped Ed up, while Sarah and BlueStar helped Al get back up.

 

        “Oh my precious Bairn, it's alright now, Daddy's here, it's over, we're here now, Daddy's got you. Oh I was so scared that the awful man would've hurt my precious little baby girl,” said Hiram tenderly to Olivia.

 

        “What you boys did was incredibly reckless! He could've killed all of you! Don't ever do anything that stupid again, you reckless yearling's!” BlueStar stated to Al and Ed.

 

        “Hey the guy followed us! He did say something about convincing the toy-maker to work for him,” Ed told them.

 

        “Did the man say that his name was James?” Hiram asked them.

 

        “Yeah, but how did you?” Ed started to ask, but Hiram cut him off.

 

        “He's the one that wants me to work for him! He's an evil man I know, and I have no idea what his plan is or why I'm involved. But if he's going as far to threaten you boys and my daughter then, I don't what else to do,” said Hiram as he held Olivia closer, Al held on to BlueStar's side, Al still had use of one leg, he leaned on BlueStar with his still able arm, the two came over to him.

 

        “Hiram, why didn't you tell us, about that James guy bothering you like this?” Al asked him.

 

        “I didn't want you and your brother mixed up with that man, both of you have been a God-send to myself and Olivia, and any man who threateneds my daughter in any way, I just don't want that happen to you both, but I guess I'm too late,” answered Hiram.

 

        “No, if you ask me, we came just in time, you've taken care of us, and we're going to help you with this James guy, if he thinks that a kindhearted man like you is going to work for a scum bag like himself, then he's got a other thing coming,” Ed told Hiram.

 

        “But for now, let's get out of this rain, I think Al's starting to rust, and I'm getting soaked,” said Sarah.

 

        “Yeah, she's right,” said Al.

 

Moondacner helped BlueStar carry Al home, Ed covered Olivia with his red coat as her father carried her, Sarah stayed next to the horses to make sure that Al didn't fall off, while Winchester walked under BlueStar to keep himself from getting more wet then he already was.

 

        By the time they all arrived back at the shop, they were all soaking wet, clothes, fur, hair and metal dripping wet, Sarah got a fire going, as soon as the flames got big enough to where they could fill the room with warmth, Winchester stood in front of the fire and shook the water off, getting everyone wet again.

 

        Ed rung out his coat and hung it to dry on a hanger and placed the hanger on a door frame, then he slipped into the back of the house to get out of his other wet clothes and slipped on a shirt and pair of pants that Hiram had given him. The shirt and pants were a little big on him, but he liked the louse clothes.

 

        “Well at least it's warm now, and we'll get dry,” said Sarah as she rung out her hair in front of the fireplace.

 

        “I just thank God in heaven all of you are alive and safe, oh, I'm sorry about your arm Ed,” said Hiram.

 

        “Don't worry about it, hey can ask you and Sarah something?” Ed asked Hiram, Sarah heard them as she was helping Olivia into some warm and dry clothes.

 

        “You know you can ask us anything Ed, what is it?” asked Sarah.

 

        “I want you guys to take a look at my auto-mail, see if you two can fix it,” Ed told them, they looked at each other and thought this through. They had never dealt with the mechanics from where ever it was Ed and Al came from.

 

        “Well....I guess we can take a crack at this, I mean I use to help my dad clean his guns, I guess I could give him a good shining or whatnot,” said Sarah, as she and Hiram looked over Ed's metal arm.

 

        “This is hardly any different than the mechanics I work with, I think we ca do this Sarah, it's just the joint between elbow and the rest of the shoulder. A few lose wires to reconnect, nothing major, we can at lest give a shot,” said Hiram.

 

        “Alright, I'm in, let's get started,” said Sarah as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and rolled up her sleeves.

 

        “If we can get his joint hooked up and working it'll be by the grace of God,” said Hiram as he too rolled up his sleeves.

 

        “Don't worry, I know you and Sarah can do this Hiram, I trust you both,” Al told them.

 

        Sarah and Hiram looked at each other each holding a look of confidence, then the two set to work.

 

About thirty minutes into fixing Ed's arm, Sarah saw that he was in pain, she was starting to worry about him.

 

        “You alright there Ed?” Sarah asked him.

 

        “Yeah....what Hiram is doing....is connecting the nerve wires....it just....always hurts like hell....I've been through worse...” Ed told them through the pain.

 

        “Do you want me to get you a bullet?” Sarah asked Ed.

 

        “What do I need bullet for?!” snapped Ed.

 

        “To bit down on, if you're in this much pain, I would figure that you would be screaming in pain during all this,” said Sarah as she looked over the socket to connect the rest of the arm to the shoulder, Al, Winchester and Olivia waited for Hiram and Sarah to finish working on Ed's arm.

 

        “Bear with us Ed, I've only a few more wire's to connect!” Hiram told Ed, who by now looked like he was going to scream his head off, and flinched buy clinching his working hand into a fist. Trying his best not to move anymore than he had to.

 

        “I have to admit Ed, my uncle is a surgeon and normally by now his patients would be screaming their heads off in pain, you're not even making attempts to scream, or yell for that matter,” said Sarah.

 

        “Just two more....Sarah I need you to hold Ed down, I have a feeling this is going to feel like a thousand knives stabbing in his arm,” Hiram told her.

 

        “Right, brace for this Ed,” said Sarah, some sparks flew as Hiram connected the two remaining wires, Sarah held Ed's working arm down to keep it from hitting anything or anyone, by now Ed was hold back his screams of pain, but the pain quickly faded, and Ed was breathing hard. Winchester looked up at Ed as Sarah slipped on the socket. Ed let a sigh of relieve.

 

        “Well that should do it,” Sarah told Ed, he looked over his arm.

 

“Go on, give it a try,” added Sarah, Ed could move his auto-mail just as good as before, every nerve was hooked up right, fingers moved, everything worked just fine, he could move and turn everything like before.

        

        “You guys are good, you might give my auto-mail mechanic a run for her money, if we ever find her,” Ed told them.

 

        “Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find her, but we did the best we could,” said Sarah as she let her hair back down.

 

        “Hey as long as you both got it working again, I'm not complaining, now I can at least fix Al up,” said Ed.

 

        “That's good, you're the only one who knows how, I mean if we took him somewhere else, they'd might have told us it was a lost cause,” Sarah told him.

 

        “Fixing Al isn't a lost cause, a person who repairs armor might think so, but it's not. I'm the only one who knows how to attach Al's soul to that suite,” Ed told them.

 

        “Do what you have to,” said Sarah.

 

Ed came over to Al, Winchester and Olivia moved out of the way so Ed could fix his brother, Ed clapped his hands and placed them on the broken side of Al's body. And in a bright flash of light Al's body was as good as before. His arm and leg fixed, attached to his body again. Al could stand and move again.

 

        “Two repairs in one day, luck must really be on our side today,” said Ed.

 

        “Ether that or you boys were born with a luck charm, you two are just damn lucky,” BlueStar told them.

 

A month had past and everything went back to normal, Sarah stopped by for a visit, and to play with Al and Olivia, Hiram and Ed were having some tea in the next room, Hiram told Ed about James and his thugs harassing him for a few months, even long before Ed and Al showed up, in some ways Ed felt bad for Hiram, taking him and his brother in, treating them so kindly only to have crap like this come his way, Ed could hear Al and Sarah playing with Olivia and Winchester.

 

        “And here we go,” said Al as he lifted Olivia over his head, Sarah watched as Winchester kept from being under foot from Al.

 

        “Higher Al! Come on!” laughed Olivia.

 

        “Okay, but you go any higher you might hit your head,” Al told her.

 

        “Just watch it you two,” said Sarah.

 

Ed and Hiram just talked in the next room, Ed wanted to help, but Hiram felt like there was nothing he could do, even though Al and Ed had done enough for him already.

 

        “So those thugs have been hounding you for a while now?” Ed asked him.

 

        “Yes, last month when he attacked you and your brother himself in person, I know now he's pulling out all the stops to frighten me to get me to work for him” answered Hiram.

 

“But I swear if he threateneds my daughter in anyway....I don't know what I'll do,” added Hiram as Ed took a sip of his tea, he set his cup.

 

        “Hey look, don't worry about it, as long as Al and I are around, creeps like James won't come near her, and if she has a good father like you around, she'll do fine,” Ed told him trying to reassure him.

 

        “I guess you're right, being a only parent, you worry about your child a lot,” said Hiram as he too took a sip of tea, and then set his cup down.

 

        “Yeah, I know what you mean, I worry about Al a lot too,” said Ed.

 

        “I guess we share the same worry for those we love so dearly,” Hiram pointed out. Then the two heard the front door, they thought it was Sarah letting out Winchester.

 

        “Been down that road so many times I lost count,” Ed told him. They heard Sarah let out a yelp, Winchester snarling.

 

        “Daddy!” yelled Olivia.

 

        “What do you want? Who are you?” asked Al who by now went on the defense and held Olivia protectively, Winchester stood in front of Al and growled.

 

        “Ed, you both better get out here!” shouted Sarah as she kept one hand on her gun. Hiram and Ed rushed out of the room.

 

        “Sarah, what's going on?” Hiram asked her, he looked over to his right and saw two thugs, one looked like he wasn't kind of right in the head, but he spoke sane enough when he talked, the other looked shady, someone you did want to catch on a bad day.

 

        “Great, more of his thugs, what the hell are you doing here, I thought we made it clear that if my brother and I caught you around here again you were going to get a kick in the a*s from us!” snapped Ed.

 

        “Ed, calm down a second,” Al told him.

 

        “Best listen to your brother young one, unless.....” one of the thugs started to say but Hiram cut him off, it was clear he had crossed paths with this guy before.

 

        “Enough out of you Marcus! Everyone knows what you really are! Don't you ever come near these boys or my daughter!” stated Hiram, Ed caught the first man's name, Marcus, it was apparent that Hiram did not take too kindly to this man.

 

        “Don't worry about me Hiram, if I face a guy like this, I can take him out easy. Hell I've taken down chimera's dumber than this guy,” bragged Ed.

 

        “Your forked tongue is going to get you killed one day boy,” said the second thug coldly.

 

        “Come on! I'll bring you down with me!” snapped Ed.

 

        “Ed, will you watch what you say for once,” Al told him, trying to get him calmed down before he lost his temper. Hiram stood next to Ed ready to help him fight.

 

        “Hiram is Marcus guy is,” Ed started to say.

 

        “A man I wouldn't leave alone in the same room as Olivia even for a second,” Hiram told Ed as his eyes narrowed and holding such a look of fury and rage.

 

        “That kind uh?” Ed asked.

        

        “Yes,” answered Hiram.

 

“Al, don't you dare let that man any where near Olivia, if he gets close, you know what to do,” Hiram told Al, Al nodded and his hold on Olivia became a little tighter.

 

        “I understand,” said Al.

 

        “Daddy what are you....” Olivia started to ask her father, but he cut her off.

 

        “Just stay with Al, I won' let these men touch you,” Hiram told his daughter.

 

        “Don't worry, your dad's going to do everything to protect you,” said Sarah, as she placed her hand on Olivia's shoulder to reassure her that her big sister was going to protect her along with her big brothers, Winchester showed his teeth and stood firmly between Al and the thugs.

 

        “Al, who are those men? I'm scared,” said Olivia, Al had to do something to let her know everything was going to be alright.

 

        “I don't know, but don't be scared, Ed and I are right here, we won't let these men hurt you, whoever they are,” Al told her,

 

        “Boss still needs an answer, he made it clear last month,” said the second thug coolly.

 

        “And I keep telling you my answer! I refuse to work for man like that! Threatening my daughter and these boys was the last straw! You tell him that threatening my daughter is going too far! Now get out of my house!” stated Hiram.

 

        “Boss has other ways, why do you think he made me bring Marcus, I guess you can stand seeing your daughter getting touched by him,” sneered the thug Ed nearly vomited after hearing that, he gripped his fists in pent up anger, Hiram shot Marcus a sickening look, Sarah pulled out her gun and Winchester was showing his teeth, Sarah knew he meant business, Marcus approached Al and Olivia, his reached out as if he was going to touch the young girl's face, Al shoved him back hard, still keeping a protective grasp on Olivia.

 

        “Leave her out of this! He said he won't work for your boss, so just get out!” stated Al.

 

Marcus started to approach them again, only to be stopped by a snarling German Shepherd and looking down the barrel of a gun.

 

        “One more step Marcus and I'm going to have Winchester take off your manhood!” snapped Sarah, with a large dog snarling at him, Marcus took a hint and went back to the other thug. Ed shot them glances of rage and hate.

 

        “So take a hint, and if I see you around here again, I'm going to kick your a*s from here to the next country!” stated Ed. The thug had just about had enough of Ed mouthing off to him like that.

 

        “Why you little.....?!” he started to say, but Hiram stood between Ed and the thug, he was not going to let this happen while he was around, the thug backed off.

 

        “Leave! Get out!” Hiram stated, the thugs left while muttering something to themselves, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, Olivia was shaking a little, Winchester ran over to the door and let out a few warning barks and came trotting back, tail wagging.

 

        “I hope we don't see those guys again,” said Sarah as she placed her gun back in it's case, then patted Winchester's head.

 

        “I'm with Sarah on this one,” agreed Al, as he handed Olivia to her father, Ed shrugged off what had just happened, he turned to everyone else.

 

        “Even if we do, Al and I can scare them off good, and if they don't take a hint, we'll remind them the old fashion way,” Ed told them with a big grin on his face. Al sighed.

 

        “Sometimes I wonder if you and I are related Ed,” said Al.

 

Author's Note

Just two one-shots put together,