"I'll tell you my full truth if you tell me yours," I offer.
"Ok," both of them reluctantly agree.
"So, uh, how do I put this?" Blue asks no one in particular, going back to fiddling with her phone. "See, when Silver and I were little, we…uh, er…ok, I'll put it bluntly. We were kidnapped."
I gasp.
"Yeah, we were kidnapped. By this creep who called himself the Mask of Ice. He kidnapped four other children along with us, trying to train us into an elite team of slaves, who would do whatever he wanted us to do. At first, some of us tried fighting. But then…" Blue pauses, her eyes glued to the phone, her posture stiff. "Things happened. Stuff that made us listen to him."
I shiver at the thought.
"We were trained in three teams of two, each specializing in something different. Blue and I were in a team," Silver mutters, the earth rippling slightly beneath our feet as two shards of razor-sharp metal fly from the ground and into his hands. "We specialized in evolving Pokémon. The Mask of Ice trained us himself. He thought he'd broken us. He thought we wouldn't fight." I don't see him move, but next thing I know, the razor-sharp metal pieces are embedded in a dead bush.
"He was wrong." More metal shards fly into Silver's hands.
Fast-paced, dissonant music faintly rings in my head, and I know Blue is playing her mental music. "All along, we plotted an escape plan, and it worked. We escaped."
"Barely," Silver adds, narrowing his eyes at Blue. "Since you insisted on snagging those two feathers."
"Wait, are those feathers the ones in my hat?" I ask, pulling off my straw hat.
Blue hesitates, then nods. "Those feathers were important to him!" Blue insists. "We had to bring down his plans, remember?"
Silver grumbles, but admits, "Yes. You didn't have to leave the note, though."
Blue half-smiles. "Ah, yes. Now that was one of the highlights of my career as a thief!"
"As a thief?" I squeak, cramming my hat back onto my head.
"We had to do something to make a living," Blue defends herself. "And since he'd trained us as thieves, we became thieves."
Silver nods, hesitates, then finally says, "Ever heard of Frost and"—he makes a face—"Steel?"
Oh, them. Even I know about them—they're a duo of thieves, infamous worldwide. My eyes widen. "You're Frost and Steel?!" I exclaim.
"Yes," Silver grumbles. "Blue had to call me Steel."
"Ha-ha. Get it? Steel, steal?" Blue grins.
Even I have to laugh at how bad it is.
"So…your full truth?" Silver prompts.