Yes, under my direct command. [Well, that's not mentioning the fact that Mustang was there to oversee him, and then the Fuhrer showed up anyway, so it was more like Archer was babysitting the troops. Still. For a moment they literally only had him to respond to. It was wonderful. Until the array went off, but we're not discussing that!]

Ah, an alchemist is a scientist. They study the way things work and create arrays to alter things to their whims. For example, there's an alchemist who specializes in fire - he heats the air and ignites it with a snap, creating a controlled flame. [...That's how it works, right? Well anyway...] The two I was working with were capable of making anything exploding using the chemical composition of whatever it was he wanted to explode, as well as his array. The other created chimeras - fusions of two animals or animal-human hybrids - with his alchemy.

[...He has no idea how Tucker's alchemy works, so there's no reason to try to explain that!]