AN: I updated!

Yay.

Usually I reply to comments by sending the commenter a PM, however, I finally got a guest review!

However, I feel like their concerns will be addressed in the VERY IMPORTANT author's note at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. And this fanfiction is a good reason as to why I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Chapter 6: Happenings in a Forest

Robby woke with the sun. Which was very un-Robby-like, and was definitely not the fault of his two pokemon who stretched 'wake me up early' out of proportion. He couldn't even be mad at them, because he was the one who said it before. Now he could only blame himself, since he was the one who didn't learn from his mistakes and be more specific.

That thought didn't help his tired eyes though.

With a yawn, he zipped up his backpack (that could probably fit a mountain in it) and slung it onto his shoulder. Rob could almost feel his pokemon's smug grins behind his back (which didn't make much sense because one of them didn't even have a mouth) as he tiptoed to the door cringing when one of his feet found a creaky board.

Mr. Briney had been very hospitable to them - the man even gave them dinner (the quickest way to any trainer's heart)- and Rob would hate to wake him in the early hours, even for a simple goodbye, his excuse being that he had said goodbye before he went to bed, just in case Mr. Briney wasn't a freakishly early riser and woke up at six o'clock naturally.

Reaching the door without any major casualties, Rob slowly twisted the door handle, Lifting the door in its frame slightly to avoid it scraping the floor. Then, in order to get all the inevitable hinge creaks out at once, he swiftly swung the door outward with the speed of Raikou, stopping it just before it hit the side of the cabin.

CREEAAK

Robby held his breath, tensely waiting to hear any sounds from within the house. The house was quiet, the only sound reaching his ears being the wind rustling the leaves in the trees and the grass sprouting from the ground along with the waves lapping at the shore.

Turning around swiftly, he repeated the process, swiftly swinging the door shut, slowing it just in time to close it fully. Another agonizing creak roared from the hinges, but it was short-lived and left a void of silence in its wake. Robby froze, waiting once more for any indication of noise.

His sigh of relief was near silent and was echoed by Silver, who also was facing the door. Turning around to begin his trek, he-

"Ya kids ar' terrible at bein' subtle."

With a undignified shriek (it was definitely not girlish whatsoever), Rob nearly jumped a foot in the air when it was revealed that was standing a few feet behind them. The old fisherman's face was unimpressed at the small group's pitiful attempt at sneaking away quietly.

"I didn't mean to wake you up-!" Came Rob's rushed apology. It wasn't something that he usually would have done (Al must have been rubbing off on him somehow), but he had started to like the honest old man.

Briney shook off the apologies. "No need for apologies, youngin', I've was already awake. Was trained into me when I was a young sprout like yerself."

"Oh." Rob's cheeks flushed, and the tip of his ears burned. must have seen him act like an idiot trying to keep quiet like that. But he wasn't laughing, and that was something the greenhorn pokemon trainer appreciated.

"Had to get up 'fore the birds did, else all da fish would be chased away." His tone was reminiscent, but didn't last as he remembered something else. "Anyway, I'm not holdin' ye up from yer journey with old stories, I'm here to give ye somethin' I fished up yesterday."

Reaching into his vest pocket, Briney withdrew a small bag (like one of those small bags you'd fill up with cheap rocks in gift shops). It wasn't empty, but whatever in it wasn't very big, or round for that matter. "Yer a pokemon trainer, so I figured ye would have more use of it than I have. Not teh mention it takes forever to find someone who buys it for the right price."

Robby nodded, taking the small bag and peaking inside it. A grunt of surprise escaped him. "How on earth did you fish this up!? I heard they were super rare, not to mention expensive. . ."

"A fisher never reveals his secrets."

Robby gave a rare real smile. "Thank you."

"It ain't some'in to be thankful for," Mr Briney grumbled, "think of it more as a send off gift."

Nodding, Robby turned away, not wanting to keep the man from his fishing any longer. He called out 'goodbye over his shoulder after a few steps and a reminder from Silver, but soon he was on his way to the Petalburg Woods.

. . .

Dirt scuffed underneath Rob's shoes and the dawn slowly painted the sky a light blue, a yellow line at the horizon line hinting the rising of the sun. The sky was slightly overcast and the slight breeze was enough to give Rob goosebumps, contrasting with the hot day yesterday. Besides him Silver was relishing in the cooler air breeze that, with his fur, wasn't too hot or cold. Balo seemed indifferent, but it was rather hard to tell on a creature with no facial expressions.

The trainer and his pokemon were getting closer to the tree line now. They had been walking down the main path lined with tall grass where wild pokemon wandered along with the occasional trainer. Robby didn't expect many people to be up this early, and he didn't trek in the grass either, not wanting to exhaust his pokemon before he even got to the forest.

"Hey you!" Snapping his head around, Robby is faced with a nicely dressed kid who definitely wasn't older than Rob was.

Great a rich kid. He thought, not exactly hiding his annoyance. Silver rolled his eyes.

"My name is Winston." Winston's chin was high in the air and he was staring down the bridge of his nose at Robby, who scowled. "Are you scowling at me? Sure."

Winston flipped a lock of pale blond hair from his face. "I accept your challenge." (Robby muttered, 'I'm not the one who did the challenging') "I have a lot of money," Winston continued, leaving Silver unsure if it was a bribe or something else entirely.

With a cocky smirk, Winston sent out his first pokemon. Silver blinked, only slightly disappointed that a zigzagoon was the pokemon that appeared. He had secretly been hoping for some rare pokemon that had been bought with a lot of money, but it looked like just a normal zigzagoon.

Balo spun to his place and the battle began with Robby calling out, "Confusion!"

Zigzagoon was ordered to use tackle, and managed to out speed the baltoy, slamming into it just before it unleashed the psychic type move on the racoon-esque pokemon.

"Zigzagoon, use tail whip!"

He spun around and shook his tail, effectively lowering Balo's defense, who retaliated with a rapid spin, rocketing towards the zigzagoon and sending him flying. Zigzagoon's sides were heaving and he looked a bit unsteady on his feet, a sure sign he was about to pass out.

Then Winston pulled out a potion. It wasn't any regular potion, no. It was a beige spray bottle with a clear part that showed green liquid inside. Winston unscrewed the lid and walked over to Zigzagoon. Smirking, he turned the bottle over and dumped all of its contents on Zigzagoon.

Robby's jaw dropped. "Did you just- the whole bottle-!" He sputtered, eyes wide with disbelief. "Did you just use a full restore on a fricken zigzagoon!?"

Winston opened his mouth to reply smugly, "Ye-"

Only to be cut off. "Don't answer that." Robby took in a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. "My real question is: why in the name of this pokemon-filled-planet would you do that!?"

Winston had the smirk that could give the legendary Blue Oak's the run of its money. "Regular potions are beneath me. Hahahaha- BWHAHAHAHA-!"

Robby facepalmed. The rich kid was still laughing maniacally while Zigzagoon sat there looking vaguely resigned. Silver called out, "Does he always do this?"

Zigzagoon nodded gravely. "He says he 'does it for the meme.' I honestly have no clue what he's talking about."

Balo spoke up. "Your trainer leaves you fully open for attack when he's laughing like that."

"Yeah, trainers usually use that to their advantage; they knock me out since Winston takes for-ev-er to stop laughing."

"That is rather unhonorable on your opponents behalf-"

Zigzagoon interrupted. "No-no. It is completely my own trainers fault, I don't blame them for capitalising on the weakness."

Robby dragged his hand down his face. Winston was still laughing, and Robby decided to stop giving the crazy rich kid a chance to redeem himself. Rob simply said, "Balo. End the battle."

. . .

Houses were tall enough to touch the sky, built upon the trees with grand canopies that sheltered all underneath. It was refreshing to see A city based on the concept of building upon what is already in existence instead of tearing it down.

The trees were tall and grand, but they left the ground beneath them in shadows. One would think that a city in the clouds would have no shady shortcuts or unnerving alleyways, but that couldn't be any more false. Afterall, the closer something is to the sun the larger shadow it casts on the ground below.

And when people live in paradise above it is easier to ignore the crime and impurity below.

It was commonly known that a town or city's gym leader often act as a governor over their city. They protect the people and manage various aspects of the town. They follow the orders of the regional league, who follows the orders of the national league. The National League doesn't really do very much to govern the people, they set the base laws of the nations and the Regional Leagues have to ask the National League before they alter any of the laws.

(A women scoffed, briefly wondering if the region would be this chaotic if the Draconis Tribe had stayed in power)

The Hoenn League was definitely one of the more 'hands off' league when compared to others. The League's Elite Four are often absent from their posts and the Champion has a side hobby that takes up almost as much time as manning the country. He allows the Gym Leaders to manage their city as they see fit.

It really shouldn't come as surprise that the city with the one of the highest crime rate is a city with a flying type gym leader. Winona is known for her beauty as much as she's known for having her head in the clouds. Maybe it was the peaceful atmosphere the town gave off as it lived in harmony with nature.

Visitors don't tend to look at the roots of the city either, instead getting distracted by the fact the city was built in the trees.

The police in Fortree City also have a bad habit of being relaxed on the job, but even they couldn't ignore something on the ground that went against the very laws Nature created herself. Police barricade tape had isolated a scene far down on the ground, where giant, tangled roots replaced the maze-like alleyways.

The police officers had panicked the moment they discovered the body. They didn't often patrol and they didn't often find many thugs either. So when they stumbled upon twisted flesh, an unholy amalgamation of parts that didn't match, they knew it wasn't something to be taken likely. Especially considering the sides were still heaving with breath.

Professor Birch was called, but he was all the way in Littleroot, so they had to call in local doctors to identify the body on sight.

The flashing lights on their bicycles (Fortree was a motor vehicle free city) painted the trees in a repeating fashion of blue and red. The sirens were turned off, as it was night time and they didn't want to arrest themselves for disturbing the peace. Multiple police officers were standing guard in an uncharacteristic manner, but it was an unusual situation.

Radio chatter was common as multiple people rushed to and fro in a near blind panic, all trying to get something done, but never succeeding. A shadowed figure observed them from a distance with a furrowed brow.

Their figure was clearly feminine, but the majority of her features were hidden by the dark night- the blue and red flashes coming from the police bikes were not bright enough to illuminate any of her key traits like hair or eye color.

She snuck closer to the scene, weaving her way between various trees, hiding just behind the shadows. She slid behind a large tree trunk just as a more level headed cop looked in her direction, narrowly avoiding his sight. Exhaling slightly in relief, the mysterious woman crept ever closer to the body, vaulting over the barricade tape and hiding behind the tree it was attached to in one motion. A moment later, she was standing over the grotesque body.

Her eyes widened with horror. "This- This- Is this thing even alive. . ?" Her tone was low, but it did nothing to hide the disgust in her voice. Pokemon were a strange race: each one was different and each species was unique. They could be cute, cool, beautiful, creepy, powerful. . .

But this- this thing- there seemed to be no words to describe it other than a feeling. It was a feeling that struck the woman's very core, a feeling of innate wrongness that seemed to defy Mother Nature's very will.

"What," She swallowed, "what is Team Magma doing!?" It was a whisper, not enough to attract much attention, but with the police officers on edge, a light soon shone on her figure, illuminating her features.

"Who's there!?"

The woman was had dark hair, even with the flash light it was difficult to tell whether it was brown or black and her eyes were a deep brown. But none of those characteristics seemed to matter when the police officer saw her outfit; a black bandana with a strange symbol on it paired with a blue and white striped crop top that matched the blue and white striped leggings, which were underneath a tattered pair of booty shorts.

"U-uh, miss, you shouldn't be here, this is a crime scene. I need to escort you out of here. . ." The police officer trailed off, expecting a reply of some sort from the strange woman.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I was just on my morning run," The woman said innocently. "I'll be right over in a second, I got my legging caught in a bush." she rubbed the back of her head in an apologetic tone.

The police officer gulped and had the decency to look away. "You get that taken care of, and I'll escort you home." He pressed the button on his radio, speaking into it. "Sir, a lady just stumbled into the site of the body. She claimed she was on a walk when she got there."

There was a few moments of radio chatter later and the rustling of a bush before the police officer there spoke again into his radio. "Can I describe what she's wearing? Of course, sir. A black bandana and blue and white striped clothes. You want me to bring her to your office first? Yes-" The police officer turned around, noticing a lack of mysterious woman.

"Uh, Sir?" He began again, already starting to cringe.

"Sir, she's gone."

. . .

Robby thumbed through the pocket money he had earned just by fighting rich boy Winston. It made sense that a rich person would give more prize money when they lost, seeing as their own perception of currency is different from the poorer class of people(1,000 Poke would be seen as less in their eyes than the eyes of a middle class worker) as they have surplus amount of cash. The money he had earned from the bug catchers didn't even measure up to half, even when they were combined.

Not that Robby even cared about the money came from, money would pay for his food and supplies wherever.

The forest itself was pretty tranquil. The wind gently rustled the leaves in the trees and a few hidden bug types made chirpy noises from the canopy. A few old leaves were on the ground from the last Autumn that were occasionally picked up by the breeze and whisked away to an unknown location. The scent the forest gave off was also relaxing, a mix of sap and petrichor.

Even the bug trainers were pushovers, but it probably helped that none of their pokemon actually knew any bug type moves.

Silver would like to think that it was peaceful too, but the tree crackling of the leaves were annoying and the breeze blowing the canopies was particularly loud. The nincadas in the trees all were gossiping, and I don't really care about how Tanna broke up with James or how a mysterious girl was abandoning her pokemon-

Wait. Silver stopped, so suddenly that Rob threw a questioning glance at the eevee. I do care that a girl is abandoning her pokemon.

Turning abruptly to the group of nincadas that he heard the rumor from, Silver bounded off, much to the befuddlement of his trainer. He dove through bushes and jumped over tree roots, weaving through saplings that have yet to grow tall enough to be considered a full grown tree, skidding to a stop just before the gossiping nincadas. There was a lull in the chatter as they each individually noticed the newcomer.

Silver cleared his throat. "Excuse me."

The chatter died and all the bugs glanced uneasily at Silver. Whispered murmurs travel through the group briefly, one almost speaking up before they were quickly shushed. The alchemist-turned-eevee suddenly felt a type of nervous energy build up within him.

"I just have a question," he elaborated, waiting patiently for a response, any response.

That seemed to ease some of the tension in the crowd. Silver couldn't exactly see many of them; they were spread out among the branches of the tree, sometimes hiding behind branches, the leafy foliage, or simply concealing themselves with camouflage.

There was a scraping skittering noise, and soon a brave nincada responded in a nasally voice. "We have many answers, but that all depends on what your question is. . ."

Silver sighed, knowing he had accidentally discovered the pokemon equivalent of an information broker- he really wasn't surprised, though he had been hoping they were just friendly gossips. "I overheard a rumor recently," he started, "about a girl abandoning her pokemon in this forest. I was wondering if you could point me in the direction."

The nincada in charge sneered. "Our family's services are not cheap, small one," Leader Nincada's tone was stuffed up (Al wondered how they learned information could have a price- one would think forest dwellers with limited exposure to humans would be untainted by greed), "I hope you did not think you could get it for free."

Silver internally groaned. He knew they were playing hard to get (sometimes Breda told Al stories about dealing with information brokers, that was a common tactic) and -thanks to those stories- he also knew how to deal with it.

"Really? That's too bad." Silver gave a brief pause, making sure to make sure he sounded sincere (he doubted these bugs had any experience with a hustle), "I understand if you don't have the information on hand, I can always get the information from a different family, I'm sure they'll have the same information for free-"

The nincadas exploded in protest and outrage.

"How dare you-!"

"We have the best information!"

"Outrageous!"

"There is no way those simpletons down below can outdo us!"

"Silence!" shrieked the leader. It took far too long to quiet the family to be considered professional. The leader was nervous, and so was the family- neither had been challenged this way before. "I will tell you where the person is -for free! (he added, ignoring the protests of his family)- merely because this is the first time you are using our services." Leader Nincada gained some confidence. "Yes- it is a quality check of our services."

Silver briefly wondered if they were purposely stalling. "Well? Where is the girl abandoning her pokemon then?"

Leader Nincada nodded and whispers broke out, but faded from ear quickly, traveling through the forest like an efficient game of telephone. The whispers returned in mere seconds, and they traveled strait to the leader's ear, who promptly declared, "The pair are close to the north entrance to the forest- approximately five clearings to the east of the entrance and two clearings to the south from the north entrance. More details-"

The whispers stopped, and suddenly all nincadas were hidden from view. Silver sighed in exasperation, made acutely aware that his trainer had just entered the clearing from the heaving breaths and the leaves crunching dramatically behind him. The eevee had been able to extract the needed information quickly enough though.

Robby was gasping for air, pointing a finger at Silver. "Why-huff- did you- gasp- run off?!"

Silver shrugged sheepishly, feeling slightly guilty that he had, but not quite enough to regret it. Balo had the same question. "Why did you abandon Trainer Robby like that? He could have been injured if a horde of wild pokemon attacked us! Or if some- some- some villain was lurking in these woods. A villain with a dark type!"

Silver shook off his mounting guilt. "I doubt any of those things would happen."

Balo tsked. "According to Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong, will. I take Trainer Robby's safety very seriously."

The eevee chuckled. "Well I guess we're lucky nothing happened, aren't we?"

"I suppose. Though you haven't yet answered my question yet."

"Ah," Silver shrugged, feeling a little sheepish, "I overheard a rumor that a girl was abandoning a pokemon in this forest, so I went to investigate."

Balo glanced back to Rob, who was on the cusp of regaining his breath. "That does seem like an issue of moral dilemma. Trainer Robby would most likely want to hear about it."

Silver grinned at the approval from the serious pokemon. It wasn't often the baltoy agreed to whatever he was planning, sometimes it was hard to tell if Balo had a mischievous side or if it had zero sense of humor. It certainly acted that way.

It really only took a few more moments of convincing (read: stealing some item then running off - it was the best way to get his often times oblivious trainer to follow him) in order be off running to wherever a person was ruining the life of her partner.

. . .

Sheryl was having a bad day.

It may have been a pleasant day in the forest (which was something truly splendid for an aromatic enthusiast), but there was something amiss that fouled the clean air that wafted into her senses. The source of the metaphoric and literal stench that ruined her day was none other than the disgrace of a grass type that sat in front her her.

She sighed, staring down in disappointment at the budew, the male budew, sitting pathetically on the forest floor by her feet.

Maybe if. . . No. If I'll keep him, all he'll do is cause trouble for me. Not to mention he's useless. Sheryl couldn't keep the budew.

Her job as an aromatherapist wasn't something she'd take lightly, after all. She'd even been breeding all her roselia so she could create the best soothing scents, but it was well know to even amateurs like herself that males in the roselia line don't have nearly as pleasant of a smell as the ladies.

It takes a couple of weeks for budew to manifest their own scent, so Sheryl couldn't just abandon the young sapling the moment it hatched. She has been doing this for a while now (really only two breeding seasons- Spring through Summer- but that isn't nearly enough time to even be considered an adept budew breeder), so the 'give away' portion of the breeding didn't really affect her as much as it had the first time- she often sold the budew to caring trainers, or made sure they transition into wild pokemon smoothly, but she definitely gave less attention to failures, now.

Sheryl had grown accustomed to the separation and the failure, but she had high hopes for this budew in particular. It (he, she reminded herself) had shown all the wonderful signs of being the perfect Nature for soothing scents- Nature was, afterall, one of the leading factors behind the different aromas, being the second largest factor behind gender.

All of her other male budews had been bought already, and Sheryl was surprised that, out of all of them, this was the one who was left behind. It had a rather good nature for battling, but then again most of her budews were bought by contest wannabees or other hopeful aromathists (Though she doubted they would get very far with a male) and modest wasn't exactly an ideal Nature for showboating.

Sheryl sighed, shaking her head. "If only you were a girl; you had the perfect Nature!"

Budew whimpered out a quiet "Buw. . ."

She tsked, flipping a lock of brown hair behind her shoulder. "I'm dropping you off here. Goodbye."

With that, Sheryl took out Budew's pokeball along with a hammer and nail. Budew sat still, sappy tears pooling in his eyes. Crouching down, she placed the ball on the ground, bracing it, leveled the nail in the crack between the two sides, and drove the hammer into the nail.

Ting

The sound reverberated with a metallic ring. The nail was now solidly wedged in the capsule. One more hit should do the trick.

Crack!

There. Done. Sheryl stood back up, taking the two broken halves of the machine with her. The mechanisms within a pokeball are very fragile, but the outside is constructed to be able to take a beating. However, it isn't very hard to break one if you knew where to hit it.

Sheryl dusted her skirt off, sending a glare at the small grass type without a home. "Don't follow me back."

The aromatherapist then hurried off, oblivious of the trio who would soon stumble upon the budew destined to be alone.

. . .

In an unknown place, at an unknown time...

Ed was getting tired of the starvation thing they had going on.

Honestly, after the shock wore off (which essentially happened after the guy who kidnapped him left the room), Ed found their methods of intimidation were laughable. Not to mention the leader obviously had a screw loose, if he thought a) that the best source of information was a pokemon (he has had several conversations with various domestic ones, and the intelligence of normal types tended to be lackluster) and b) that he thought he'd be able to get anything out of Ed.

Who cares if the bast way to a person's heart is through their stomach? It was a game of chicken, and Ed knew he wouldn't be the first to give.

Not to mention the fact they had a quadruped in chains, when keeping him in his pokeball is definitely the best way to contain a pokemon (he preferred the chains), especially if that pokemon had recently rediscovered the fact he could use Alchemy.

Yeah, he was not going to keep playing this game of chicken.

Notes:

This is the VERY IMPORTANT author's note:

Recently, people have been leaving wonderful criticisms(not sarcasm, I swear). They address that fact of how I am not really incorporating Ed and Al's experiences into the fanfiction. I agree that I have failed to do so. However, this isn't the main reason of why I will no longer be updating this fanfiction, until I potentially rewrite it. I don't know where I'm taking the plot. I have a few plot twists written out, but plot twists mean nothing if there is no end to the story.

At the moment, I don't have any intentions of rewriting this. SO! If anyone wants to use the basic idea as a prompt (Ed and Al ending up in the Pokemon world as pokemon) feel free to do so!

I admit that I kinda botched this story by not focusing enough on how different characters would react to this type of scenario. I won't be taking it down, mostly because it was the first one I posted on this site. And some people seem to enjoy it despite the many mistakes.

I'm using this as an opportunity to learn. Maybe I'll rewrite it eventually.