Author's Note: Here you go! Another chapter, fresh from my computer! Although this is only chapter 4, and the story is only beginning, and the wait time is long I know... Never fear! This story will continue to grow and develop, as well as my writing skills!

Update: Just made a few experimental changes to some parts of this chapter, nothing major. (5/25/18)

Previously on FMA:P - The Elric Brothers reunite with Colonel Roy Mustang and set off on a heist to steal a ship. Meanwhile, the Straw Hats prepare to set off on their own journey to the Sky Island.

Chapter 4, The Ulterior Heist!

Marineford, a few days before postal service...

"Fleet Admiral! The ambassador has arrived!"

- Fleet Admiral Sengoku - The Buddha, highest ranking military official for the marines

Sengoku met the messenger with a nod and turned to meet the door of his office as it opened to reveal the ambassador.

He wore a blue uniform weighed down by heaps of medals, a symbol of honor in high society, but the uniform representation of whatever military he lead remained unknown.

"Welcome to Marineford, military headquarters of the marines. Would you like some tea? " Sengoku said as a greeting

"Its a pleasure to be here. What a grand place to be in! Allow me to introduce myself." He said in a formal voice, his passive face and eye patch revealing nothing about his ulterior motives.

"My name is..."

- Fuehrer King Bradley - Ambassador of the Celestial Dragons, previous leader of Amestris

A few minutes later...

Through a warm conversation of Vice Admiral Tsuru's excellent tea and crumpets, Bradley soon got down to business, his eyes narrowing into a stern glare.

Sengoku, getting the message, immediately ordered all his men outside his office.

"So Fuehrer, what is your purpose in this visit?" Sengoku inquired

"Please, call me Bradley, I was a Fuehrer but now I am merely just an ambassador." Bradley replied. "There is someone who holds a great threat to the balance of the world government, and the World Nobles as well as I, want him captured alive."

"Tell me Bradley, who exactly is this person? And what is his power you speak of?"

"Admiral, I'm afraid that is classified information. I admire the human nature of curiosity, but for once I am requesting that you or your marines do not look further into this matter." Bradley spoke in a grave voice.

Sengoku started to become irritated about the fact that little information he was provided in order to find some pipsqueak who apparently was too dangerous to leave alone and dead.

"Bradley, I'm afraid with this little information in our knowledge we wont be able to track down your little delinquent."

Bradley's stare became 10x more magnified, the look of a leader with lots of control. "Sengoku, this command was passed down from the world nobles themselves; their orders are absolute, I myself merely being an ambassador to represent them."

The admiral gave a grave nod, but Bradley's facial features softened drastically, into casual mode.

"However, I sympathize with your situation. My subordinates will put forth their effort into supplying you with intelligence of his nature and whereabouts."

As soon as these words left his mouth, the door banged open, revealing the idiot Vice Admiral Garp clutching a manila folder.

"Oi Bradley! Here's the folder ya asked for!" Garp whaled out. "I wonder what's so top secret about this? Maybe their are rice crackers in here. If there were, that would be pretty funny! Bwahahahahaha!" Garp collapsed on the floor, clutching his sides, and laughing with comedic tears leaking from his eyes. Bradley took the folder from him before then.

Opening the folder, amidst the background sound of laughter, he whipped out two pictures. One of Ed striking an epic pose in his signature red cape, his face in a twist of rage, (from someone calling him out on his height complex), and punching him during a brawl in some random bar. The other was a large iron suit of armor, who appeared to be waving at the camera thinking that it was used for some other purpose. The helmet's face was a mask of metal with two red glowing pinpoints of light for eyes. Despite how many people would think that to be pretty scary, the eyes shone no signs of threat and even looked friendly and inviting. Comedically, the other brother was stomping off into the distance looking ready to murder someone (for calling him short), all captured within that image.

"Even though these people are brothers, they always stick together. I guarentee you can't find one without the other." Bradley added on.

"Hmmm, these are some peculiar threats to the world government..." Sengoku thought out loud. "Alright Bradley, I will ask them to print these pictures on a wanted poster with a high bounty to increase the chances of effort the bounty hunters will use to look for them." Sengoku replied, defeated on the inside.

"Don't worry Admiral, the money is on us, all we ask of you marine force is to capture these two individuals without killing them." Bradley comforted, patting Admiral Sengoku on the back in an act of support.

"Hey guys! I actually did bring rice crackers!" Garp exclaimed excitedly, already stuffing crackers down his mouth "Lets celebrate the new ambassador!"

Bradley despite being a leader experienced with formalities, let out a merry laugh and beckoned the ticked off Fleet Admiral to join him.

"Remember Admiral Sengoku, we are on your side."

Meanwhile...

Luffy and the Straw Hats recently returned to the Going Merry at nightfall, having recently stolen back the golden south bird, captured a live one, and even beat up Bellamy, which was a bonus.

"Shishishishishi! I knew Bellamy wasn't that much of a problem! If Edo could rough him up a bit, so can I!" Luffy cheerfully exclaimed, despite having a few bruises himself.

"Ugh you're still talking about him? We don't even know who he is, we just met!" Nami said, a bit agitated on Luffy's rambling. Suddenly a new thought came to her:

"We don't even know how dangerous he is... If he beat up that scumbag from before... he must be very dangerous... and with a high bounty!"

"Relax, Nami! Edo wont hurt us, he's a nice guy!" Luffy said reassuringly.

"I agree with him, he looks hella strong. Maybe I can challenge him and beat him as a kind of checkpoint before I face Mihawk!" Zoro chimed in, adding in a maniacal smirk just thinking about that thought.

"I concede!" Ed exclaimed, little chibi tears pouring from his eyes. "You really are the greatest swordsman in the Grand Line, no, in the world!

Ed was lying on his butt a bit bruised up, while Zoro stood over him, his dominance over taking Edward's and pointing Wado Ichimonji in his face. Touche!

Ed then preceded to clutch the swordsman's legs in some sort of hug

"Teach me your ways sempai!"

"Heh, young Edward, you my friend, have a lot to learn!"

"Zoro, I don't know what kind of stuff is going in your mind right now but its probably not a good thing so STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" Nami started, while Zoro made a 'tch' and closed his eyes and turned his head the other way. It was about to erupt into a full on argument when...

FWOOSH!

A seagull with a postal service cap carrying a burlap bag filled with newspapers and stuff started throwing it down to the surface below. He tossed one at the Straw Hat group and then prompted to scatter flyers everywhere into town and then flew off, scattering some of that good stuff in some other area.

"Oh hey the news is here!"

"About time!"

At this point Luffy and the others were already at the Merry and were currently looking at the news!

"NO WAY! My bounty rose! WAHOOO! I'm the one million man!" Luffy shouted, already heading to the fridge to celebrate his infamy.

"Zoro's bounty also rose, to 60 million beli..."

"Heh, I'm getting more famous!" Zoro smirked.

"Don't you see what that means? It means that were gonna get hunted down by more bounty hunters! Scary!" Nami yelled, getting to the brink of having a breakdown.

"Relax, its not that bad, if you don't attract attention to yourself, nothing will happen." Robin pointed out, effectively calming Nami down.

"Hmm? There looks to be a couple more wanted posters underneath ours."

Robin slowly took out the last two posters and laid them flat on the table they were using. What appeared on them was technically expected, but still not expected, surprisingly. (confusing I know, I'll stop talking, you get the memo)

WHAAAATT?

The whole crew voicecracked, with the exception of Robin, the conservative, cool-under-fire type of woman, and Luffy, who had come back with a huge load of meat and was currently stuffing his face.

WANTED

( Ed's epic portrait )

( ALIVE )

) (

( EDWARD ELRIC )

) $B 500,000,000 (

~~~~~~~~~~MARINE

WANTED

( Al's passive portrait )

( ALIVE )

) (

( ALPHONSE ELRIC )

) $B 400,000,000 (

~~~~~~~~~~~MARINE

*Note - I'm so sorry about these wanted posters, lol. I'm sure nobody in the fandom would ever do something like this. Welp, that's a first. You know, if Fanfiction guidelines declare this not illegal, I might make more for our favorite Fullmetal crew. ;P

The Straw Hat's reactions were quite different, especially Luffy, Nami, Zoro, and Robin's:

Luffy: "WOW! Edo is really cool with such a high bounty! A big-shot pirate was right next to me and I didn't even know it! I wanna be just like him!" *stars in eyes*

Nami: "I KNEW IT! He was trouble! I better watch my back if I were near him!" *silently whimpers*

Zoro: "Hmm! A larger challenge than what I had expected. If I beat Ed, I definitely have a shot at Mihawk! heheheh..." *bloodlust in eyes*

Robin: "..." (Her thoughts are filled with so much analytical high level words I couldn't possibly process what Robin is thinking right now) *Eyes closed, deep in thought*

"Anyways, Edo, I'm sure that we will meet again on the high seas sometime later." Luffy said with vigorous, flaming determination in his eyes as he gazed toward the illuminated Mock Town.

Blackbeard's Rendezvous Point, Sundown...

"Zehahahahahahaha! This is so great boys! So many different high bounties to choose from!" The large, curly-chested pirate captain said merrily with mocking laughter.

- Marshal D. Teach - Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates

"Oi! Navigator! Repeat to me what happened during your visit to the marines!" Blackbeard commanded

"Oh, my, what an experience that was." A light soft spoken spoke.

- Lafitte - Blackbeard Pirates Navigator

Enter flashback...

Meeting at Marijoa...

Lafitte tenderly retracted his wings as he landed adjacent to the windowsill where the meeting between the Marines of Marijoa and Marineford commenced. Leaning his head closer to the scene, he listened intently, soaking up all information like a sponge.

"Aughgh! I have a lot of problems on my plate right now!" cried out a voice.

"Admiral Sengoku, calm yourself! Just state your business for gathering this meeting here!"

Sengoku replied: "Well now that Shichibukai Crocodile has been defeated by that cursed Straw Hat, he leaves me with a new position to fill! Plus Straw Hat Luffy, who has become more of a threat to us by defeating a warlord, we need to take action!"

"Raise his bounty!" a patron said.

"Right! This man gets it! Unfortunately, Straw Hat is the least of our problems right now, the World Nobles themselves through the ambassador have ordered us to capture certain individuals who are highly dangerous and threaten the World Government to the core!" Sengoku continued, the distress level of the room rising bit by bit. "We definitely need to do something about this! But what?"

"The ambassador? You mean King Bradley? He is a pretty cool person, but you absolutely do not want to get on his bad side!" a background voice informed.

Lafitte's eyes widened, then waned, as he was coming up with a grand scheme to get his captain into that position. He then kicked open the window, to the shock of the officials, and made his way inside.

"Ahem, I believe I have a solution to your problem, Fleet Admiral..." He slurred out with a soft voice.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

"Admiral! He is Lafitte, the navigator of the notorious Blackbeard Pirates! He is not to be trifled with!" Vice Admiral Tsuru informed.

"That's right! My name is Lafitte, and I will make a proposition to you. The Blackbeard Pirates will handle your pirate problem, and in return you give the warlord position to Blackbeard himself! It's a win-win-win for everyone!" Lafitte exclaimed, twirling his snazzy cane like a pro.

"Hmmm, now that I think about it, we do need this to be taken care of rather quickly." Sengoku thought out loud.

It took only a few seconds for him to finally make his decision.

"Deal! We'll let Blackbeard take the position only if he captures at least one high ranking bounty like Straw Hat, the Elrics, or some other threat to the World Government."

Lafitte tipped his hat in recognition, did one last twirl with is cane, and said: "Don't you worry, Admiral, Blackbeard surely will be able to accomplish your task!" With that said, he leaped out the window he came from and flew off into the afternoon sky.

Sengoku turned to look at the retreating figure in the sky. "That is one peculiar pirate...Well that was two birds with one stone. Now I can finally relax and eat some rice crackers with Garp!" He thought.

The Admiral quickly called the room to attention. "The topic in question has concluded! Meeting adjourned!"

End flashback...

"Well said, Navigator!" Blackbeard responded, remembering the two people he met at the tavern in Mock Town. "So now we must either catch Straw Hat or the Midget! This will be a breeze! Zehahahahahaha!"

"Now who's with me? We will make a name for ourselves as Shichibukai!"

"YEA!"

"Heheheheheh...My master plan is quickly coming to action!" Blackbeard thought as he partied with his four comrades. He reached and took a large bite of a familiar cherry pie that had recently expired.

"OH HELL NO!" Ed exclaimed as he, along with the Colonel and his brother made their way to the docks.

The messenger postal service bird had dropped a spare flyer at them. Ed, with his super fast ninja reflexes, caught it with ease. What was on the flyer, however, was a different story.

"Brother, they can't have messed up your information that bad...and how should I have known that photographer worked for the marines?" Al said, in an attempt to calm his older brother down.

"But Al, this is terrible! How could they have written such misleading information about me? Why?"

"Edward, that information isn't misleading, it's merely the truth." Roy stated offhandedly, earning a fight with Ed.

"SHUT IT COLONAL BASTARD! This poster called me short! And in so many different places! I'm gonna kill the bastard who wrote this! Edward exploded into the night.

For your information, here's what the wanted poster description said:

Edward Elric, along with his brother, are two major threats to the World Government. They must be detained immediately. Their whereabouts and abilities are currently unknown, but can easily be spotted due to the presence of armor. Ed himself however, is a tiny, small, short, miniature, microbe runt who is less easier to spot due to his vertically challenged small stature. His short temper is also a sight to behold. BIG WARNING: DO NOT CALL HIM SHORT, PUNY, TINY, etc. or any word or phrase deriving from the word: small.

Arriving at the docks five minutes later, Ed could see various pirates, civilians, and street guards viewing the fliers with leveled intensity.

"Shit!" Ed thought "This would be a whole lot harder now that the whole world knows who we are."

"Alright, Ed, pick any ship you want, we need to get going." Roy said as he transformed into grown-up mode.

Ed, the child, looked at Roy with glee, and snuck around to view the different ships and to determine which one they were gonna steal.

"OOH OOH! That one!" Ed exclaimed, pointing to a decent looking galleon, equipped with double decks, and six cannons on each side. The mast was sturdy, as were the lateen sail. The main sail however, already had a pirate jolly roger, but who cares about that? Ed sure doesn't!

"Wow Brother! You actually have a good taste in ships! Unlike some of your designs..." Al replied in a mischievous tone.

"Well Al, this will be the ship we'll use to spread justice around this grand line!" Ed replied, already fantasizing about how great of a ship this can be.

"It looks like the crew are coming back! We have to hurry and seize it!" Roy ordered, interrupting Ed's fantasy and turning a cheerful Ed into Grumpy Ed.

"Fine! Whatever! Here's the plan..."

The captain of the ship that was about to be hijacked lumbered to the docks along with his large crew, drunkenly pushing and shoving and having a merry time. Too bad they're in for a nasty surprise.

"Stop!" The captain looked around lazily, his vision was getting more blurrier. "Huh? Whaddaya want kid? Were busy! Get lost!"

The juvenile suddenly turned beast mode and launched into a fury storm.

"IM NOT A KID! I'm about to whup your drunk ass into tomorrow! Fight me!"

The captain started to get into a drunken rage after being undermined by such a runt.

"Ya wanna fight? Well you got one!" He yelled, throwing a few lazy punches in which the teen dodged with ease.

The captain soon met face to the fist and was sent flying to the ground.

"I've had enough of this nonsense! SOBER MODE, ACTIVATE!" The red irises in the captain's eyes disappeared into a look of pure fury. With more coordinated body movement and aggressiveness, the fight became much harder for the boy.

"Oh shit..." he thought. "I'd better end this soon!"

The fight was interrupted when a crewmate noticed what was really going on.

"Boss! You got better things to do! Our ship is bein' hijacked! The shrimp is only a distraction!"

As soon as he heard the word 'shrimp', all hell broke loose.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SHRIMP WHO COULD NEVER GET HURT IN A FIGHT BECAUSE HE CAN EASILY SLIP INTO THE GROOVES OF YOUR FIST?!"

Roy, hearing his rant, cursed under his breath. "Edward! Shut the hell up and get back to the ship! Were leaving! Hasta la vista! Sayonara!

The captain took a split second to process what was going on.

"Edward? As in the Edward Elric?" He asked, his voice skeptical.

"Noooo, this isn't him. I'm Edward Cullen." Ed replied, coming up with a last name that just popped into his head.

"He's lying boss! See this is him!" Another crewmate informed, holding out Ed's wanted poster.

The captain gazed at the boy, then at the wanted poster, then back at the kid. After a few seconds, he shouted a large battle cry:

"GET HIM BOYS!"

"Oh man, I'm so screwed!" Ed thought as he ran like hell towards their ship now.

The chase was long, with Ed occasionally throwing all sorts of stuff behind him in order to hinder his pursuers. What didn't help at all in this situation was when the captain and his men yelled out to the whole town that they were chasing down the 500 million pipsqueak.

"Dammit Mustang!" Ed cursed under his breath. "Why the hell did you have to yell my first name out for the whole world to hear!.

At some point, as Ed was running down the path to the ship, he passed by a certain familiar cherry pie lover. The meeting was quick and brief. Ed ran past him shouting a "Hey there! Nice to see you again!" before sprinting off and whipping up some wind in the process.

Blackbeard could only gaze in mild confusion until he heard the voice:

"Hey that guy who passed you was Edward Elric! Chase him down!"

He didn't need to be told twice.

"Finally! I can see the ship just up ahead! Just a few more steps and...

Whump!

His face hit the ground with his arms up in front of him. Ed had tripped in the most stupid way possible. Ed could literally imagine Roy and Alphonse face palming on the deck of the galleon, where he was in plain sight. He was not wrong.

"Dammit Ed! Why can't that idiot pay attention to his surroundings?" Roy yelled out loud.

"Brother! Don't give up! Run one last time! Its only a few meters!" Alphonse called out, in an attempt to encourage him.

Ed was feeling dazed, but the combination of Roy's haughty voice and Al's encouragement, along with the annoying sound of his pursuers almost catching up to him, especially that extremely annoying 'Zehahahaha', Ed's reflexes and parkour skilles helped him leap onto a nearby building that was adjacent to the ship.

He slammed his hands together in a resonating clap, almost as if he was praying, but Ed didn't believe in God, how ironic. Ed then tapped them onto the material of the building and alchemized a launch pad of rising wood, successfully executing a front flip and landing feet first onto the deck of their hijacked boat.

The mob could only look ahead in astonishment.

"Pyro! Now!" Ed commanded, his captain ego inflating.

Roy, quickly slipped on his ignition gloves, a white rough cloth gloves with the flame alchemical symbol sewed onto the fabric. A snap exploded into a raging inferno and broke the sound barrier, and completely annihilated the mob, most of them getting severe burns, but not life threatening, because I don't want to pay the insurance money.

"Haha! Yes!" Ed exclaimed as he and Al exchanged an epic high-five. Roy smirked as he looked down upon the mess he created. "I almost thought that you wouldn't make it!" Al noted, only to be reassured by Ed: "Of course I would make it! The Fullmetal Alchemist never fails!"

The ship was sailing slowly away from the port of Jaya.

"Hey brother look! I can see Luffy's ship from here!" Al shouted out loud, excitedly waving his armored arm at them. Luffy, sitting on his normal spot on the head of the Merry Go, quickly returned the wave, a large grin plastered upon his face. Seeing that, Edward also waved, the exchange getting more merrier as more Straw Hats plus Roy joined the waving club.

Meanwhile...at what's left of the Jaya port...

Blackbeard slowly rose to his feet along with his crew members. The majority of the mob were just lying down on the ground, their charred skin stinging against the cool night air.

Blackbeard himself had some burns, but he didn't give a shit about them. He was positioned right in the center, and his crewmates on either side of him, two left, two right, the wind howling, the smoke rising into the night behind them. He gazed his eyes in absolute cold fury, his smile widening like a maniac itching for blood.

He had found his next target...

He had them locked dead on...

A/N: And finished! This chapter took me like 3 hours to write but I'm so glad to have finished it instead of leaving it aside. I feel so accomplished! Anyway, I know that this story wont gain popularity any time soon, but I myself, don't really care much about that right now. I would like to thank the people who have discovered this story and read it all the way to the latest chapter. Thanks a lot guys! I appreciate every favorite and review; criticizing reviews are welcome too ya know! There has to be the critics. Follow if you want more of this story!