The Man with the Mechanical Arm

After Edward phones Roy Mustang about their arrival, the colonel dares the brothers to catch an earlier departure, sending them sprinting for the platform. Several off-duty officers share the ride, among them General Hakuro on a family trip, Maes Hughes gushing about his pregnant wife, and Warrant Officer Vato Falman. Hughes notices an unusual crowd boarding, and moments later armed men seize control, tie up Falman, and take the passengers hostage.

The captors belong to a group calling itself the People's Eastern Revolution Front, led by a man known as Bald, who sports his own mechanical arm. Through the general, Bald demands that Mustang release their imprisoned leader in exchange for the hostages, then fires a round through the general's ear to prove he alone gives the orders.

The brothers quietly overpower the men in the rear car and free Falman, who confirms the raiders are after the general. Alphonse clears the lower cars while Edward works the roof, and after a tree nearly sweeps him off, Hughes catches him and the two press toward the engine. They retake the controls, and Edward improvises with alchemy, first firing a transmuted cannonball, then flushing the remaining bandits outside with a rush of water straight into Alphonse's fists.

Cornered at last, Bald reveals he was discharged by the military after receiving his automail and has hated the nation ever since, assuming Edward will one day share his fate. Edward destroys the arm and Alphonse knocks him out, and the train reaches Central safely. When Bald tries a final ambush at the station, Mustang subdues him with a snap of his gloved fingers, revealing himself as the Flame Alchemist.

The episode adapts the manga's train battle chapter. Its most notable inventions are the presence of Hughes and Falman aboard, both absent from the original, and the use of Bald's capture to qualify Edward for the State Alchemist exam despite his age, whereas the manga's Edward already held that rank. The subtitles mistakenly list Riza Hawkeye as a major rather than a second lieutenant. This entry belongs to the 2003 continuity alone and was never carried into Brotherhood.