AN: Progressing plot today, more like the last chapter of the 'introduction arc.'
Not really sure if three chapters could even count as an arc, but I'm grouping the arc's by plot not length.
Disclaimer: You're lucky I don't own Pokemon or FMA.
Edit: 6-10-20. Some more details to the scenes. Minor plot change.
Chapter 2: Alchemy
Those last moments seemed to be the peak of perfection for the Elric brothers in the pokemon world. If they were to freeze time at that moment, Ed and Al would be perfectly content. What happened next could only be blamed on the Elric brothers eternal bad luck as their life began to break down even further.
It started as a normal school day that would go down in history.
Laura woke up to the stomping of footsteps as her older siblings went off to middle school. She quickly scurried out of bed to say goodbye despite it being 6:45 in the morning. The lights were dimmed in the kitchen and Laura said goodbye to the retreating forms of her sister, Alexis, and brother, Gordon, as they scurried out of the door.
"See ya, kid." Was Alexis's reply as she ruffled Laura's bed head. Gordon merely gave a grunt before the door swung shut with a bang.
The youngest sibling flinched at the loud sound; loud enough to wake up Griffin, and he did not like being woken up this early. The Golden eevee's eyes slowly opened and he yawned, getting off of his bed and peeked at the clock. He shot an accusing glare at Laura as he realized how early it was. The lass gave a shrug and Ed went back to sleep with a grumble.
Laura tiptoed over to the window and lifted the shade to take a quick peek. There was a flash of light signaling thunder and the streetlights allowed her illumination to see the pouring rain outside. Right, rain-jacket it is. She quickly munched on a poke'tart and then brushed her teeth, not quite taking two minutes. She then glared at her hairbrush and began the grueling process of yanking it through her tangled up hair. She managed to get dressed in appropriate gear quickly enough
She glanced at the golden eevee. The time was now 7:30 and she still had to get that raincoat on the eevee so his fur wouldn't get soaked and stink up the school (Ms. Larsen had lat Laura keep Griffin out of his pokeball as long as he wasn't stinky, messy, or did anything to distract the students). Quickly she pounced on him and soon he was unhappy in a raincoat.
But the time was then 7:40 and they had to be at the bus stop at eight so they quickly rushed out the door and met up with Robby on the street corner, who was in panic mode as well and together they made the ten minute walk to the bus station.
It was another ten minutes wait for the bus and Ed was cold, uncomfortable, but at least dry. When the yellow bus finally appeared through the misty downpour, it looked foreboding as the headlights appeared to be wilo-whisps, spirits from certain folktales that lead people either astray or on the right path.
The golden eevee shivered slightly, and looked about wearily as if someone was watching him. Seeing no one, he quickly hopped onto the bus after his trainer.
The school bus was heated and had a loud chatter on it, even though it was half empty. Robby and Laura squished into one seat with Griffin in between the both of them. They mostly sat quiet until one of them brought something up, but after a few words about the topic they would lapse into silence, which was rather strange as the two weren't normally this quiet. Something was off in the air that got both of them strangely anxious. However, them not being ones to worry (they were rather young), soon dismissed it.
The bus stopped at the final destination- a cozy little elementary school. The students soon got out and ran to their homeroom teachers' rooms. Robby and Laura approached the 4th year. Although elementary schools graduate after 5th year, if one signed up for the accelerated training course they could graduate early at the age of ten in order to start a trainer's journey. Robby and Laura had both signed up for these classes, which is why they both had a pokemon.
Laura swung open the door and entered the classroom, Griffin and Robby following closely behind
. . .
It started during math class. The class had almost put Robby asleep within the first ten minutes when a loud boom startled him awake. Shaking the sleep from his eyes he eyed the other students- looking if anyone dropped any books or kicked a wall.
Mutters echoed around the room and Robby felt a cold dread inch its way down his spine.
He realised his saving grace would soon turn into his worst nightmare come true.
The building shuddered for a few seconds and a few more precious seconds later the alarms started blaring. A few people let out a couple squeaks at the sudden noise and a few foolhardy boys began chattering in excitement.
The teacher managed to calm them down. "Alright everybody, you know the drill. Locks. Lights. Out of sight." Ms. Larsen strode up to the door and pulled the magnet from the door. She closed the shutters in the windows and turned the light out in the room, before ushering the whole class into the storage closet conveniently in attached to the room. Griffin stood just behind the door, his golden fur spiking up as his hackles raised. Golden eyes narrowed and he stood guard at the door.
There was another shaking explosion that rattled the entire building. And another. Another. They seemed to be getting clos-
Thud. The sudden noise so close interrupted Ed's thoughts. Any noise that could have been heard in the storage room died as everyone sat completely still.
Thud. There was a pause. A moment's breath was all the time the golden eevee had to dodge the storage room door as it got disconnected from its hinges and shot inwards, the once reassuring protection turned into a lethal projectile.
Griffin didn't even have time to mourn as he dodged a fist coming straight for him. The pokeballs that were kept in the room were dislodged from the shelves as the fist impacted the ground, sending a shockwave out. Ed's eyes widened at the power display. Smoke poured into the room outside and a red inferno could be seen beyond the imposing silhouette. The fist was suddenly very close to Ed's face as a fierce uppercut sent him flying into a fall.
The super effective attack left the golden eevee bruised against the wall, but he had taken a harsher beating than that in the past, and struggled back to his feet, growling a challenge at the now visible pokemon. A Combusken.
Ms. Larsen was now standing up, pokeball in hand. With a toss she silently swore she would not let this monster hurt anymore of the children. With a flash, her meowstic appeared. His eyes gleamed with power as he launched a psyshock at Combusken, temporarily warding him off.
With the biggest threat busy, Ed's golden eyes scanned the impromptu battlefield. It was chaos. Rubble was somehow already pilling up and flames were catching on the few flammable substances in the closet. Weaker leveled pokemon streamed through the entrance and were ravaging the room, attacking children, and stealing pokeballs.
He had to stop those pokemon from getting in. Frantically looking for any way to at least stem the flood of enemies, his eyes caught on the door that had flown from its hinges. Bits of red were flicked onto it and it wasn't entirely flat on the ground.
There are people- kids- trapped underneath that door. An arm was hanging out limply, and no one seemed to notice the growing pool of a sticky red substance gathering beneath the door.
Reassessing the situation, he charged to a few of the stray pokeballs littering the ground. Releasing the pokemon inside, he was met with a wurmple, poochyena, a taillow, and the exact same machop that had been used to capture the two Eevee brothers.
All of them looked around in confusion, not seeing their trainers, only to be horrified at the disaster around them.
The wurmple spoke up."What do we need to do?"
"I need you to use your string shot to barricade that door to prevent any more pokemon from getting in. Taillow, I need you and poochyena to help free the other pokemon and protect the children." All three of them nodded, before rushing off to do as they were told. "Machop. I need you to help me lift that door. There are students trapped inside."
The small humanoid pokemon gave a nod and they both rushed back over to where the warped metal door lay. Locking eyes, Machop lifted the door, grunting from the effort. Sliding underneath the now open space, Ed was met with one crying child cradling her wrist, one knocked out (probably a concussion), and the third who had unfocused eyes and was the source of all the blood; he had been stabbed by some shrapnel and his forehead had red slowly trickling down to drip off his chin.
Quickly grabbing the most bloody one by the back of his shirt, he used all of his eevee strength to pull him out. A trail of deep crimson was smeared on the smooth ground. A wurmple cried out when she spotted the boy, who Griffin assumed to be her trainer.
With one last tug, he managed to clear the door. Taking a moment to address the wurmple, Ed said, "I need you to take off his shirt and wrap his head and where he got stabbed. Try to elevate the places where he's bleeding."
Smoke stung his lungs and his teeth ached already from dragging something twice his own bodyweight, but that didn't dissuade Griffin from rushing back under the door to get the next person, the unconscious one. Biting into the shirt, Ed tried to pull her out, but there was a tearing noise, and he fell backwards on his tail with a loose piece of fabric in his mouth. Growling, he spat it out, cursing the weak material of the girl's shirt. Instead, he pushed her on her side, ignoring the sniffling girl behind him, and began to gently push her out with his head.
He was panting, sides heaving, getting less oxygen then he needed, but he managed to push the unconcious girl out from under the door. The child still under the door was crying and Machop's shaking muscles showed he couldn't hold the door much longer. Ed swore but darted underneath it anyway, always a hero to the people.
The girl's left leg was at an odd angle and it was already starting to bruise around the knee. Tears were streaming down her face and strands of her red hair were already getting plastered to the side of her face. Learning from his last mistake, Griffin offered his neck for her to grab onto, and she wrapped one arm around his back, supporting herself with her other. Her leg was dragging uselessly behind.
That knee was definitely broken.
Machop groaned. "Please hurry up! I can't hold this for very much longer!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Griffin snapped, coughing as a wave of smoke tried to infiltrate his lungs. It was true. When you were carrying someone more than twice your size, had less air than usual, and that person had a shattered kneecap, a person can only go so fast.
"It's slipping!"
And the door fell. Ed's eyes widened, seeing the only thing in the way was the remaining half of the girl's already broken leg, the other one tucked up out of the way. She screamed as it landed with a crunch just below her already broken knee.
"Lift that door back up!" Roared Ed, seeing the twisted expression of pain on her face. Machop complied hastily, almost dropping it again in his haste. Ed hauled her the remainder of the way. "Wurmple I need you to make a cast for this girl's leg!" Griffin called out to the bug who shakily nodded.
"G-Got it!"
Doing a once over to see where he was needed, he noticed that the wurmple had gotten some of the door, but was now fainted and the barrier was ripped to shreds by some rattata. They needed more-
Somehow, through the fire and chaos that filled the large storage room, he heard the cry. "Griffin! H-Help! HELP ME!"
The golden eevee whirled and soon saw a sight that filled him with outrage. An ekans had reared its ugly head and was prepared to strike Laura.
Ed shot off like a golden bullet, summoning the stars of swift as he ran, using a quick attack to ram the ekans off and into a nearby shelf. Two of the swift stars was enough to faint the poisonous snake and the rest flew off to find knew targets. A Poochyena went in for a bite while his back was turned, only to meet the super effective double kick straight in the face.
Griffin pirouetted and began protecting Laura with his back to her, going on battle autopilot mode. A swift was sent at a nearby ekans. Double kick was sent a zigzagoon flying. A rattata almost got past his guard but was dealt with a bite. Zubat was dealt with swiftly by a swif-
Edward tripped and face planted into the tiled ground. Slowly he got back onto his paws, only to find his left back paw couldn't support him. He turned to see that it was a machop that had used lowkick. His fist glowed brightly as the fighting pokemon lunged forward in a karate chop.
"Sand attack!"
Ed somehow got a pawfull of sand that was then flinged at the machop's face, allowing time for a dodge. The machop cleared the sand from his eyes and glared at the golden eevee who was now a safer distance away from the guts pokemon.
Griffin stared at his opponent with Baby-doll eyes, and managed to land the status move twice before having to dodge.
"Leer!" Ed glared and the machop suddenly felt uneasy. Ed then sped forward in a quick attack and a combined double kick. The quick attack landed a solid impact but because of the sprained ankle, only one double kick hit. The attacks were enough to faint the fighting type opponent.
Griffin's knees buckled and he fell to the floor, only to be caught by was a short hiss, like some sort of heater started up. The room heated up and at the same time somehow cooled down.
The emergency lights burst. There seemed to be a pause in the air, as everyone hesitated, even the attackers. Five flames appeared in mid air, from seemingly nowhere. They were a pale blue that faded into a deep indigo the further they drifted into the air. Then the source of those ghostly flames appeared, slowly, as though it had been invisible and the appearance of the flames painted it into being.
Chandelure the Luring pokemon. A fire-ghost type. By waving the flames on its arms, it puts its enemies into a hypnotic trance. Tales say that beings get their souls used as fuel for the flames and leave the bodies behind, the spirits burned by he flames end up wandering the world for eternity. It is the final evolution of the Litwick chain.
The information barely imputed itself into Ed's brain before a whirlwind of blue fire was hurled straight at him and his trainer. He had to dodge.
But if he did, the fire would hit Laura.
Alchemy, his mind whispered. If only he had his alchemy. Every single time he tried, it hadn't worked, but it was now, or never.
With a roar, Ed let the alchemical energy build up within him, a blueprint to withstand the attack already in his head. He slammed his golden paws to the ground.
A circle appeared around him, glowing with a much more comfortable blue light than the incoming flames. Cyan lighting stretched around the circle.
Vision darkening, Ed managed to see that it had worked. Laura was safe, for now. A reinforced stone dome surrounded the two. Then the blackness consumed his sight, and he fainted.
. . .
The attacker's lip curled. "Interesting."
. . .
Laura didn't understand what had happened.
There had been a strange pokemon, obviously a bad guy, considering how it attacked the two of them. Then there was blue lightning. And then a mysterious stone dome appeared.
The roaring of flames grew louder as they splattered against the stone wall. The air within the dome heated up. The school girl wondered if she was going to get cooked alive.
A soft murmur echoed from the walls of her protection. Laura tensed. A bluish glow encased the dome.
Crack. A fault line slithered across the previously unblemished stone. Dim blue lights filtered through the crack as it expanded. A chunk of the once safe dome was torn free and, suddenly, all of the dome's pieces were hovering in the air, covered in a blue light.
Laura looked up as she clutched Griffin's unconscious body. Seeing the ghost type, she felt as though she had been plunged in an icy lake full of liquid fear. Her eyes re-filled with tears that spilled unbidden down her cheeks. Her shoulders shook.
The combusken looked over at the ghost type, before giving one nod. He towered over the fallen psychic cat, who was severely weakened after the appearance of the ghost type, before lifting one leg and bringing it down right on his head with a sharp crack. Blood began leaking out around Meowstic.
Robby was forced to look on with rage and terror as Ms. Larsen was kicked in the ribs by a cruel man in a strange outfit. As Griffin was wrenched out of Laura's grip and returned to his pokeball by the man, who then pocketed it.
He glanced at his Ghost type, who hovered behind him eagerly. "Eat up. Leave some survivors." He said grinning maliciously.
"Cha-chande! Chande! Chandelure!" Its yellow eyes gleamed with joy as its flames expanded, wrapping around Laura, and a few other nameless children.
Laura sobbed, green eyes glittering with tears as the ghastly cerulean flames approached her. The man paused, glancing back at the girl. "Actually," his voice was filled with malice, "spare the girl. She might prove. . . Useful."
The man grabbed her wrist roughly and she gave a cry of pain, struggling to escape. Her jagged fingernails digging into the man's wrist. He glowered at her, smacking the back of her head harshly with his freehand. She sucked in a breath, feeling her head spin as tears spilled from her eyes.
"Help!" Laura hollered, "Somebody, please! Help m-!"
She was shoved to the floor, rubbled tearing into her skin. She struggled to get up, eyes wildly looking for any oncoming danger. But her vision was blurry with tears and pain, objects around her merging into one incomprehensible mess. She couldn't have dogged the boot to the face even if she could see it.
Darkness was encroaching at the edges of her vision. All her senses were muddled now. She dimly heard a boy, Robby, scream. It could have been in pain, but it sounded more like-
She passed out before she could really understand what was happening.
. . .
Robby could only watch in horror at the scene around him. Pokemon were everywhere, stealing pokeballs, fighting pokemon that were protecting. He couldn't find Silver's pokeball. He hoped Silver hadn't been taken.
A shelf containing pokeballs rocked next to him, a few falling loose. There. The black glossy paint of the luxury ball Silver was in stood out against the standard reddish-orange. Roby was surprised he hadn't spotted it earlier, but he never was very observant.
He shot forward, grabbing it from the shelf, holding the prize close to his chest. His whole body shook with fear.
Meowstic, despite having the type advantage, was in a stalemate with the combusken that blew the door off its hinges. His eyes gleamed with the mystic psychic energy everytime he sent a psyshock or psybeam, but Cumbusken evaded almost every one, flipping and ducking, just to rush in and land a solid hit before the psychic cat could teleport away.
Rob felt a tear leak from his eye, which he furiously wiped away. He can't cry here, not now. The Luxury ball shook in his hands, Silver no doubt trying to get out so he can help fight.
"No," the trainer hissed under his breath, "I can't let you out, I can't lose you."
A rattata rushed at him, biting down on his shin. Robby cried out, gripping the pokeball even harder as it shook violently. "No!" He kicked the rodent away, and wildly scanned the area for something to defend himself with. The pokeball was warm in his hand.
He spotted a thick plastic bat propped up against a table near the back of the room. Rob scampered over to it, limping on his bleeding leg, and grabbed it with his shaking right hand. He heard a snarl and swung wildly, smacking a lunging poochyena away with a hard crack. It growled and shook its head.
Robby bit his lip in concentration, adjusting his grip on the bat. He wished it was metal, but this was as close as he got in school. Snarling, the black dog rushed at him, only to get a facefull of bat. It must have been a low level poochyena, because it didn't get back up.
He heard a faint cry, but the familiarity was what got him to look wildly around in search of the owner of the voice. He had never heard Laura sound that scared, desperate, before.
A blur of golden red caught his eye. Griffin. The eevee was a storm, raging against his enemies, each attack seemed to faint a pokemon, striking like a bolt of lightning. He was by Laura in a second, knocking an ekans away mid-strike.
There was a growling hissing noise in front of him, and Robby tore his gaze away from the fight. The rattata from earlier was back for vengeance, its buck teeth bared with its tail raised aggressively. Something red shone in the depths of its black beady eyes.
Then it lunged, and Robby dove out of the way, swinging his bat in a wide arc, smacking the purple rodent out of the air. It landed on its feet and immediately scampered to bite down on Robby's tan, alolan arm. The boy didn't have time to move, but suddenly the ball clutched in his left hand burst open.
Silver stood, but not for long, tackling the rattata off of Robby, wrestling it into submission. By submission, he meant into unconsciousness. Robby's sides were heaving, and he dropped his bat, clutching his arm where it was bleeding. The crimson liquid leaked from between his fingers.
Then his vision was consumed by the concerned expression of Silver. The eevee sniffed his open wounds, but once his inspection was over his whole demeanor changed from concerned to frustrated and upset. Silver growled something, Robby could only guess it was something along the lines of 'why didn't you let me protect you?'
So he answered. "I-I was-" he winced, "I was afraid they'd see you and t-target you because of your unique c-color-" Tears were openly streaming down his cheeks and he hiccuped. Silver shifted his focus to purely protect his trainer.
Then the atmosphere changed.
It was cold now, but Robby's skin still felt the heat, like he was feaverish. A shiver went up his spine as five blue flames faded into existence. His breath hitched when he saw how close Laura and Griffin were to those terrifying flames.
The pokemon that followed the flames wasn't a kind Robby recognised, but there was a malevolence about it that was something only found in nightmares.
The sounds around him were muffled as he focused solely on what was happening to Laura. Meowstic's scream echoed faintly in his ears. He sucked in a breath, the air felt scorchingly hot, but it also chilled his lungs.
Then Robby's frantic eyes caught sight of the man who seemed to be in charge. He wore a deep red cloak, and his arm was extended, finger point directly at Laura.
Laura his best friend.
Silver was fighting even harder now, but even more pokemon were running towards them, snarling. Silver was snarling back.
Then blue flames shot towards Laura, Griffin standing valiantly in front of her. He shot backwards and suddenly there was a blue glow, but it was much more comforting that the flames. Lightning arced briefly and the ground stretched, flowing upward and closing off as it shaped into a dome to protect the two.
Robby's breath hitched, and he sobbed in relief. The blue flames collided with the dome, heating it up, but doing nothing else. The man murmured some other command and soon a psychic glow enveloped the dome. A few seconds passed, but the first crack appeared, then another, and another. The fractures spider webbed across the dome and soon it full on shattered, crumbling as the pieces were removed and tossed to the side.
Laura was sitting in the middle, curled up, hugging Griffin who was completely passed out. The man walked up to her, grabbing Griffin by the scruff and yanking him from her loose grip. Robby's tears blurred his vision and his hands curled into fists.
The man grabbed Laura next and Robby snapped.
"LAURA!" He picked up his discarded baseball bat and struggled to his feet. Silver was by his side, growling fiercely. They moved, running at the man who thought they could take their Laura. Screaming at the man who thought he could tame Griffin.
Robby gripped his bat with two hands, now, swinging wildly at any pokemon who thought to get in his way, nearly bashing their skulls in with the strength he normally never would have. Silver was doing twice as much damage.
Then a poochyena pounced on Robby's back, his knee buckled, and he fell to the ground. The dog bit into his shoulder and Robby cried out, watching with blurry vision as the villain left with both Laura and Griffin.
The man left and all of the attacking pokemon left.
Robby howled in anger along with Silver.
He couldn't do anything! He was useless. He let the man take Laura, if only he had gotten over his fear earlier, he could have helped. His hesitance made him useless.
And then Robby vowed he would never feel helpless or useless ever again.
. . .
This is the tragedy of the Rustburro incident. Eight people passed. 18 pokemon taken. 19 people injured. One missing. Only one of the many crimes of the infamous Phantom Inferno. It is the very reason why the league beefed up security in schools and granted stronger pokemon for teachers to use as personal protection for the children.
It scared children.
Separated families.
Friends.
It was the reason Robby decided to leave home. To become the best. WIth his partner, Silver, he will become strong so he could never feel weak or helpless ever again. And then he will save Laura and Griffin.
Notes: So how was that?
Did it feel like a cliffhanger? Sad?
Who do you think mystery man is? I was dropping hints like crazy, but hopefully it isn't too obvious.
I actually started typing out my plot, so that's good news. Original title was 'Violent Separation,' but someone commented about the whole alchemy situation that I had so far neglected to address, so I made the title more misleading, though there was alchemy here, so. . . yeah.
If you are looking forward to Al's perspective that won't happen right away, probably will be more like a flash back rather than regular chapters.
Please review.
