pure-thornless-rose: Hey there all! Now this is my first FMA fanfiction, okay? Do you like the title? It's connected to the Periodic Table of Elements... We happened to be learning biochemistry in Biology class in school and my teacher gave our class the P T of E chart... Oh, and Ed will fill you in on which element ison the title... he'll tell you in the story that is.

disclaimer: I, of course, dont and cant own FullMetal Alchemist or its schooper cool characters.

enjoy!

Snakes of the Element 47/Ag

Chapter 1: Meet SilverSnake… and the New Uniform

By: pure thornless rose

INTRODUCTION

"State alchemists aren't the only dogs of the military. In fact, the military has more than that, more than just their dogs. The military has other people; individuals who are caught in their game and the military are the ones in control. Some of them even become state alchemists themselves. They have them strung up and dancing like the little marionette dolls you see in those adorable puppet plays—but the real thing isn't adorable. Like little game pieces, they have them on a set path where every move you make you'll be risking the chance of winning the game. Better yet, their game."

"Unfortunately, I'm speaking the truth about these individuals. As a matter of fact, I know about many of them. I even knew some of them. How? Well… let's just say that I'm one of those so-called individuals… those game player pieces. And I'm real close to becoming another one of their dogs."

THE STORY (Duh...)

It was in the middle of the day, the clouds covered the sky here and there and occasionally passed by under the sun. The breeze swept over the grassy fields.

"I wonder how much longer until the next town?" Kaida asked herself as she continued along the bank of a stream. She paused and looked around, shielding her eyes from the sun until a cloud passed over it. She saw the height of the sun, "I think I'll take a quick break…" She then dropped her backpack under a nearby tree and walked to the stream's edge and bent down over the edge. She could see her eyes and her short, tied back, black hair become distorted in its reflection in the water. Her right eye was a plain brown while her left eye was hazel.

She took a good look around at her surroundings again. The stream was before her and there was a dirt road a whole grassy field away. There was a small forest along the stream and a bridge crossed over where the dirt road connected, but it was far off.

Kaida pulled out her silver pocket watch—the ones the State issued to every State Alchemist, of course—and checked the time. A minute until noon.

"Yeah… I'll go ahead and take five…"

Meanwhile, back at Central…

"Ed, I need you to go visit a couple little villages further east… again." Colonel Roy Mustang said flatly, inspecting his little ink pen. He never moved his eyes away from it.

"WHAT!" he obviously yelled, "But I just got back from there!"

"Well you're going to go back."

Ed took a deep breath and counted in his head. "Why…?"

"Because… I said so… and you'll be meeting up with another State Alchemist."

"Who and what for?"

"She's titled "Silver Snake" alchemist; you, and Alphonse, will team up with her to investigate the towns marked on the map I gave her—here's your copy." Mustang handed him his copy of the map. Ed reluctantly took it, it had three small towns marked with a red dot on them, and they were east from Central for a good long distance. His face faltered while the Colonel's smirked. Ed read, "JERK" written all over his superior's face. "People in the three towns have been suspected of having done illegal alchemy, and since they're oh so close together, the State decided that two State alchemists and an armor suit can handle this small situation without the cost of trains to get them around."

"So where is this "Silver Snake" anyway? She still here or what?"

"She should be halfway to the first town by now… I sent her on her way yesterday, and since you and Al arrived yesterday, I decided to just let you two rest until today."

"Great, we'll have some catching up to do then huh…? Thanks for the break though…"

"Hm. Just get there soon before you loose your new partner. I hear the first town hates the State, and as long as she can keep her mouth shut about herself, she'll still be alive by the time you and your brother arrive…"

"Alrighty then…" Ed sighed. "I better go tell Al…" He walked to the door and opened it. "See ya." With a lazy salute he continued out the door.

Outside Central…

Alphonse decided to head outside and wait for Ed. He couldn't stand still while being inside the offices anyway. He couldn't do anything that included not moving… Hawkeye wouldn't permit it—Black Hayate would think he's too good of a spot to pee on, especially if she wasn't around to witness it and shoot…

"Hey Al… Guess what…?"

"What is it, big brother?"

"Colonel Pyrokenesis wants us to head back East… again…" Ed sounded upset… as usual.

"East…?"

"Yeah… apparently, we're going to meet up with another State Alchemist. She's titled "Silver Snake" Alchemist.Wonder what for…?" He suddenly began pondering to himself, nearly drowning Al's voice with his mental thoughts… "Hmmm…"

" 'She?' So is she here in Central or do we have to go find her?" Al asked and found no answer. "Hello? Brother? Are you even listening to me?"

"—Huh? What did you say?" He snapped back into the world and drifted back into his own thoughts. "—Oh sure, Al. Yeah…" Ed folded his arms and looked up in the sky in thought, still holding the map. Alphonse saw the map and slipped it out of his little big brother's automail hand. He never noticed…

"A map?" Al inspected the map of their country and spotted the three red dots on three small towns close to each other. "Brother, what's this all about?" No answer. "Nevermind… I'll go ask the Colonel myself. Stay alright?"

"Uh-huh…"

Colonel Mustang's Office…

"Heheh…" The Colonel had just finished today's set of papers. He smirked at himself, and at the little doodle of a woman (that looked very familiar) wearing the Military's uniform—but with a miniskirt on. It was just then when first lieutenant Hawkeye had entered with another stack of paper work. Roy knew she was there but he kept on doodling. "Hi…"

"Hello, Colonel Mustang." Trying to keep things professional unlike he did. "Here, more… papers…" He voice faded when she saw the little drawing. It was almost done and it looked pretty good. It had her wearing her uniform, but with a mini skirt. She blushed and dropped the papers on his desk. "W-what are you drawing?"

"You like it? Cause I know I do…" He picked up the sheet with one hand and pencil in the other, smirk—no grin on his face and then he showed it to her. She too read, "JERK" all over his face. "Hell, that's what you will be wearing once I become Fuhrer…"

"Colonel, I advise you to hand me that sheet of paper."

"No."

"Colonel… that statement earlier, as I said before, can be counted for as treason… and I warn you…"

"Warn me huh?" He stood up and held onto the drawing. "…Or else what?"

"Just, just give it to me—uh… there's something wrong with it…"

"Oh really… No, I think it's quite the masterpiece! What's wrong with it?" He held out the paper to her. She quickly snatched it and pointed at her image.

"THIS is what's wrong! The skirt is too small!" She pointed at her image. "And my—err, her bust is way, way too large… If the Fuhrer saw this, it would be categorized as harassment to female officers…!"

"Oh really, and you're saying all of this to protest or protect me? How sweet—Now give that back it's mine…"

"No—and no…" She blushed some more. Havoc had suddenly entered the room, saw the situation, not to mention the drawing, and looked at the two. Mustang was already reaching over his desk for his masterpiece while Hawkeye was inching her face away from his and holding the picture away from him. This was how Havoc saw the image by the way. "I'm going to dispose of this as soon as po—huh?"

Suddenly the paper was pulled from her clutches and into Havoc's. "Mm-mm-nnn… Nice drawing… did you do this, Mustang?" Mustang nodded proudly. "Heheh… I wonder… how could you draw Hawkeye if she was never in the same room huh? I bet you have a good image of her in your head…!"

"That's NOT me… That thing's genetically enhanced and I AM NOT genetically enhanced!"

"Hey…!" Mustang stiffened. "Are you questioning my artistic abilities?"

Suddenly Fury and Breda entered the room. Hawkeye's eyes (heheh…) widened, there was a good chance that they would see Mustang's "masterpiece". So quickly, while Mustang and Havoc took notice of the other two officers, she snatched the drawing and crumpled it up. Havoc was also about to tell them about it but it was too late for him to say anything. Even more-so when Hawkeye tossed the paperball into mid-air.

Bang! B-Bang, BANG!

She shot the crumpled drawing as it flew though the air, the bullets tearing the paper ball into pieces. The bullets purposefully close to hitting the colonel, the bullet holes were right behind him to the side a little bit also. Everyone was wide-eyed. She exited with a content smile. "Like I was saying before the interruption. I'll dispose of it ASAP… You should be getting back to your work… Colonel Roy Mustang…" She stopped under the doorpost.

"Before I retreive A LOT MORE for you…"

The men gulped and sweatdropped as she entered the hall. They also heard her greet Al. Shortly Al entered the room with his map.

"Good afternoon everyone!" Al greeted them; he saw the (still smoking) bullet holes behind Mustang. "Oh, Colonel Mustang, why are those bullet holes so close to you?"

"I'm out…" Havoc suddenly said and exited.

"Wait…" Fury whined slightly. "What did happen before we came in?"

"Tell us, Havoc!" Breda insisted. "I gotta know because this seems interesting!"

The two trailed behind Havoc, leaving Mustang to explain things on his own… At least he only has a one-person audience left.

"Well, it's nothing… don't worry about it."

"Oh… alright then."

"Did you want to ask me something, or something? Because I need to get this paperwork done before Hawkeye comes in with… more paperwork…" He cringed at his last word as he plopped down into his seat again.

"Actually, yes. It's about the new assignment you gave to Ed… and this map."

"Couldn't you just go talk to Ed about that?"

"Well… yes… But no… Just look out the window and see for yourself."

Both of them then looked out the window and searched for Ed.

"Okay…" Mustang finally said after seeing Ed sitting there idly on his own. "What is he doing?"

"Thinking about why our new partner was titled the 'Silver Snake' Alchemist…."

With Ed… tsk, tsk, tsk...

"Okay… there must be some logical reason why she's "Silver Snake"…" Ed pondered on and on, not knowing why he's suddenly all worked up about this… (ME: Maybe because I said so… ED: Hey… no fair! ME: Shut it… I'm the writer around here…) Then, as he thought on, a visual image came to him…

It was a faceless woman (since he didn't know how old she was)… "Okay… maybe she has some sort of special ability that has something to do with snakes—that are made of the forty-seventh element of the Table of Elements with the atomic weight of 107.8682 and symbol of Ag… also known as SILVER!" Then, next to the woman, appeared two giant silver snakes… made of… silver! "But what would the silver snakes have to do with her?" Then the two snakes went poof and disappeared. He shook his head. "No, no…Hmm… Ah! I know! She's half silver snake!" Suddenly the woman in his mind went poof and suddenly her bottom half was silver snake rather than legs and feet. She looked at him and flailed her arms and shook her head wildly as if saying, "NONONONO... NO!" "Okay… maybe not…" Another poof and the woman was back to normal and she sighed in relief. "Oooh! Her powers control snakes that evilly glare at things and turn them into silver!" She shook her head in disappointment… "Okay, she's right… that would totally mess up Alchemic laws anyway… she sounds kinda dangerous too…" She nodded. "Okay, I have another idea! She can create living silver snake chimeras that do things at her own whim, and then, she, herself, has and automail arm and she can transmute it into a weapon that resembles silver snakes! HA! THAT'S RIGHT! IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE NOW!" He said all this proudly and folded his arms and nodded. Also, the woman had changed into what his vision imagined. Suddenly the whole scene was stopped and torn by the angered woman and dumped into a suddenly there wastebasket. She was back to her original form and was very mad at Ed for imagining all those things. She stormed off and out of his mind. Ed stood up suddenly and reached into the air for the disappearing woman, "Hey! Wait! Don't go! That wasn't the reason why? Crap…"

Back in the office…

"Oh my…" Al said in concern.

"Did he just reach for something?" The colonel asked. "I think I heard him yell something too…"

"But there wasn't anything there… right?"

"His thinking got to him… either that, or he's finally cracked… I knew it would happen sooner or later..."

Quickly, after they watched Ed begin thinking again, they turned away to make sure they don't witness any more strange actions.

"So…" Roy began awkwardly, "About that assignment… and what you should tell your brother about Silver Snake…"

pure-thornless-rose: HI THERE! I hope you enjoyed it. Was there anything wrong with it? If there was... then please, go ahead and tell me in your reviews...

oh... and REVIEW... i kinda practically asked you about that a second ago... yeah...

please return for the next chapter!