Glaring at the strange men that surrounded them, Ed maneuvered his brother until Al was between the State Alchemists who were back to back. He still wasn’t sure what was going on but the hungry light in those animalistic eyes reminded him of the various chimera he had fought over the years.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” growled Ed, tense for the fight that he knew was coming. There was no way these ridged-faced men weren’t going to attack, not with the confidence they were projecting, and Ed only hoped they would be intimidated into leaving before Al was hurt.

“Well, well, well, lookie here boys,” leered a man with scraggly brown hair as he strolled around the group. “A little Slayer and her tag alongs out for a stroll.” A cruel chuckle echoed through the group and a few even bared sharp fangs in an attempt to intimidate the group. “So nice of you to bring the buffet with you, Slayer.’

“Lame line,” drawled Buffy, and Ed noticed that she wasn’t paying any attention to the things behind her near the rest of the group. Clapping his hands, Ed transmutated part of the sidewalk into a metal spear and handed it back to Al before creating his usual two foot blade from his automail arm. A quick glance showed that everyone else was armed with those wooden stakes except Roy who was poised to summon his untraditional attack that gave him his title.

“I’m hungry,” pouted another, running his eyes over Ed. “Let’s just eat ‘em.” He lunged forward only to be driven back by Ed’s skills with the long blade attached to his arm.

“Idiot! That bade can’t hurt you!” hissed the first being, hitting the second up along the head before glaring at Ed. “Pretty fancy work for a kid. I’m gonna enjoy drinking you dry.”

The Fullmetal Alchemist growled and raised the blade slightly in a blatant challenge. “Anyone mind cluing me in on what these things are?” he asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

“Not human,” Xander replied, getting a firmer grip on his stake, and Ed nodded, waiting for someone to make the first move. Not human he could deal with without breaking down until much *much* later when everything was safe again.

The first move came from the thing that had attacked Ed earlier. Snarling, it lunged at the teen who managed to hold it off with his blade before sharp metal cleanly sliced through its neck. The second his blade emerged from the other side, the thing collapsed in a cascade of dust, and that seemed to be the signal as the other things rushed the group. Ed found himself battling two of the things as he kept them away from Al, and his brother helped with his spear, but slowly, the Elrics were losing ground against their attackers.

Suddenly, there was the crack of an explosion as fire flared into existence in a long stream and drove the things back.. A few lost their nerve and ran, terrified, into the night but the rest stayed including one who was trying to get close enough to attack Roy despite the fire he was controlling. Ed and AL managed to keep the thing off of Roy until Al stumbled on a bad crack in the sidewalk. He crashed to the ground with a startled cry and his spear clattered from his hands.