Fullmetal Alchemist: Lost and Bound

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Hiromu Arakawa does. I only own the OC characters.

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Colonel Roy Mustang pulled up to the front of Central's library. In the passenger's seat sat Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, her gaze fixed solely in front of her. Black Hayate sat in her lap, yipping excitedly that he got to go for a drive. Alphonse Elric sat in the back, his hulking form taking up almost the entire seat. The rest of Mustang's team were back at headquarters, trying to find any information about the chimeras that were spotted in Central. After endless searching, the military officers were able to confirm that there had been absolutely no more sightings of them after the night that Edward had gone missing. Now they just needed to look for clues that indicated where they had taken the young alchemist.

Mustang put the car into park. "All right. In order to find out what happened, we need to trace Fullmetal's route. This is where we start. Alphonse, do you have the tracker?" the colonel asked, turning in his seat to look at the empty suit of armor.

"Yes, I do," the younger Elric replied, holding up one of Ed's extra gloves. Edward always needed to buy new gloves due to the fact that he destroyed his right one often when turning his automail arm into a weapon, and the left one would almost always get lost during fights. He had so many of them that Ed often interchanged between a lot of them, so each one had his scent.

Alphonse held the white glove in front of Hayate's nose, the dog in question sniffing it dubiously. After the small canine was finished, everyone climbed out of the car, with Riza releasing the dog to do his work. "Find Edward, Hayate," Riza ordered the black-and-white fuzzball.

Immediately, the dog went to work, sniffing intently at the ground. Still following the scent, Hayate walked forward, the rest of the company following after his tail. The canine lead them through the streets of Central, twisting and turning, the paths unusually elaborate. "Why would Brother go to such lengths to walk this route?" Alphonse asked incredulously, his hollow armor clanking as they walked.

"Perhaps he realized he was being followed, and he tried to shake his pursuers off of his tail," Riza answered, her studious gaze fixed on their guide. All of a sudden, Hayate stopped. Still sniffing, he turned to his left. Crawling forward, the canine made his way into an alley, shadowed between two buildings. Halfway in, he jerked his head up and started barking.

"He's found it," Mustang commented, entering the alleyway. "Search in here, and see if you can find anything," he ordered, turning to his two companions.

It didn't take long for them to find something. "Sir, over here," Riza called out. Alphonse and Mustang hurried to her side to see what she uncovered. When the lieutenant turned to them, she was holding a simple white cloth that seemed to belong to the rest of the odds and ends that are normally found in an alley. "It has a sickly sweet aroma to it," she informed.

Mustang took the cloth in his hands. "Chloroform, then," he mused. He turned his gaze back to Hawkeye. "I believe this is evidence enough that this is where Fullmetal was attacked and captured. And since there have been no more reports of these chimeras in Central, my guess is that they've left the city, and are taking him elsewhere. This means this is a full Amber Alert. The entire military must be informed and on the look-out."

The Hawk's Eye saluted her commanding officer. "We'll send out the alert right away, sir," she responded. With that, the party left the crime scene, somehow still feeling as though they had made no progress into finding the Fullmetal Alchemist.