Hey guys, yes I know this is a week late, but let me explain. This week for me is midterm week, and I had 3 midterms in the last 4 days. I spent all of last week studying and getting ready so thank you for your patience.

Disclaimer: My excuses aren't very good, but I don't own Full Metal Alchemist

Poulfer, Ed, Matt, Dahn, and Randall are set to enter town from the North side, and they take their first steps when the clock strikes noon. The city is quite small, just a group of houses with a few bars and stores towards the center. The group makes their way to the one hotel in the town to check in, and then head to the nearest bar to do a little reconnaissance.

It's pretty early, so the bar is almost completely empty, with a few locals sitting at the bar talking to the bartender. Poulfer narrows her eyes and lowers her voice to just above a whisper, "I will do the talking. Go sit at a table over there and keep your mouths shut."

They nod and split away from Poulfer, walking over to a nearby table. Poulfer sits down at the bar and orders what appears to be a beer, starting up a chat happily with the person next to her. Ed can hardly believe his eyes when the person who he believed to be so strict giggles at something the man says.

Poulfer downs her drink and the man quickly orders her another one. A waitress approaches the Private's table, drawing Ed's attention away from his commanding officer. "Four root beers please," Randall orders for the group, quietly asserting his leadership. Ed keeps his mouth shut for now, he'll get his chance later.

The waitress walks away, and the four return to staring at their platoon leader, who is still eagerly talking to the bar's resident. The bartender has joined in as well, but Ed is too far away to catch what they are saying.

After a moment the waitress returns with the root beers, so they start sipping on them silence. Ed eyes Randall, who furrows his eyebrows together.

"Look… if we are going to work together, we may as well get along. I think we got off on the wrong foot." Ed puts down his root beer mug, trying to sound as peaceful as possible.

Randall doesn't respond at first, choosing to take a long sip off his root beer. He places it down with a small clink, avoiding Ed's gaze. He looks over at Matt, and then at Dahn, who for once has shaken off his nervousness and shoots him a small smile.

"I guess I have no choice," Randall concedes, leaning forward in his seat. "We need to have a successful mission, and if I have to work together with you three, then so be it."

Ed grins, "Great, let's get this done, and maybe by the end we won't have to be enemies anymore." If Ed were back home with Al, he would be leaping out of his seat with a small sparkle flashing over his head. However, mature undercover Ed keeps that under lock and key behind his smile.

Matt grins as well, raising his glass happily. "To us, lets have an awesome mission."

Dahn matches Matt, "To us."

Ed nods and picks his own mug up. Randall hesitates for a moment before raising his own glass. "To us."

The four clink their glasses together and share a drink. Meanwhile, Poulfer is wrapping her conversation up with the bar folk, and she stands up and comes over to the Privates. "I've got everything I need, lets go."

The four drop some coins onto the table and stand up. They leave and head to another bar to gather more information. Again Poulfer warns them before approaching unsuspecting bar residents, so again, they sit down at a table, and the cycle continues…

Every night one person from each group goes to a secret location to exchange information.

Randall goes to meet up with the other Platoon members on the first night, and when he returns he has some interesting news. "They are setting up the trap house tonight and believe that he could show up anytime within the next week. We should get in position to capture him tomorrow. The other two groups are set up, and actually spotted the thief amongst a group of people, but they didn't make a move because they didn't want to alert him to their presence. The town perimeters are being watched, so if he leaves, we'll know it."

"Thank you Shapiro, good work." Poulfer complements the young Private, sending him and the other Privates to their shared hotel room.

Once there, the four of them lay out a map of the city, talking strategy. Ed pulls out a pen, drawing a large circle, "This is the house, we need to figure out how we are going to capture the thief once he enters."

"Is there an attic in the house?" Dahn asks curiously, leaning over the map.

Randall nods, "I think so, two of us can hide in there and wait until we hear something. I can do that, maybe with Warrant Officer Poulfer."

"We can put two people on the roof as well, with one more person a few roofs away watching the street." Ed inputs his opinion, and is happy when all three nod in agreement.

"We should take up these posts starting tomorrow morning, then take turns sleeping in case he shows up at night." Matt rolls up the map and throws it into Ed's bag. "We should get some sleep, tomorrow is a big day."

Three days of vigil pass uneventfully, and the group is wondering if this guy is every going to show up. Ed and his group find themselves in the bars once again, trying to figure out where this thief could have gone. The group who is in charge of watching the city exits hasn't reported him leaving, so he must be hiding out, maybe he heard about the military presence within the town.

Poulfer is not in a good mood, and she looks exhausted from the constant lookout. "We need to find out if anyone's seen this guy, we might have to think of another way to capture him since he isn't taking our bait."

The gang knows the drill by now, and they pick a table in the corner while Poulfer hits up the bars.

As Ed sits down, he notices someone with a hood drawn over his face as he enters the pub. He sits down at the bar and order a drink, but don't greet anyone else in the establishment. Ed nudges Matt subtly, feeling anticipation pool in his gut. "Hey, what kind of luck do you think we'd have if that's him?"

Matt looks up, and reaches into his pocket to pull out a photo of the criminal. "That'd be sweet, we'll definitely know when he turns around."

Randall rises slowly, "I'll go stand on the other side of the door, and if its him wave to me and I'll grab him."

Ed nods, "go for it."

Randall crosses the room smoothly, leaning on the wall next to the exit while looking down at his hands.

The guy at the bar is still drinking, keeping his head down, he sat pretty far away from Poulfer who is absorbed in a conversation of her own.

After a while he stands up, dropping a few coins on the bar counter. As he turns to leave, Ed gets a brief glimpse of his face, and squints hard at him. He holds up to the picture. It's an instant match, he looks exactly like the man in the photo.

He raises his hand quickly, signaling to Randall who slides into the doorway. Ed and his friends jump up, running over to where the hooded man has paused in front of Randall.

"What?" he stuffs his hands in his pockets, clearly wanting to avoid a confrontation.

Randall his pistol, eyes narrowed with determination, "You are under arrest for thievery, put your hands up."

The guy takes a step back, then suddenly pulls a 9mm pistol out of his pocket. He hesitates for a split second like he doesn't want to shoot, but Randall freezes up as well. The two stare down each other's barrels for a moment in eerie silence.

"Randall get down!" Dahn hisses, jumping forward and pulling Randall to the ground as the thief lets two shots ring. Fortunately both miss and Matt leaps on him, knocking the gun out of his hands and slamming his head into the ground to knock him unconscious.

Poulfer looks up from the bar and her jaw hits the ground in shock. She quickly regains her composure and joins the group. "Well would you look at that, good job guys, especially you Shapiro. I noticed of course, I just wanted to let you kids handle it."

Dahn rolls off Randall and the two stand up, but Randall looks nervous for once, "Thank you Miss Poulfer."

"I'll take this guy to the local prison, then round up the rest of the Platoon, see you back at the hotel Privates." Poulfer scoops the unconscious thief off the ground, leaving the pub.

Randall still looks nervous and turns towards Dahn warily. "Thanks for saving me," he admits, "maybe I was wrong about you guys."

Dahn shakes his head, "Don't worry about it."

"I didn't deserve it," Randall looks down at the ground bitterly, "Not after the way I treated you."

Dahn puts one hand onto Randall's shoulder, showing a calmness that he's slowly developed over the past four weeks. "I don't hold grudges, and neither should you."

Randall nods, looking up and smiling at the xingese kid, for once seeing him as an equal.

Matt throws his arms around the two happily, "awesome we're all friends now, lets have some root beer before we go back!"

Randall agrees, "Sure, and I'm buying."

I will try to be more timely next week, it will be spring break and everything.