Morning Tidings

xxxxx

The very next morning, once everyone had managed to get some small amount of sleep, revealed the full extent of the consequences of the night before.

The fight had left its toll on the house. Large patches of drywall had come loose in some areas and caved in from the sudden impacts and abuse in others. The glass coffee table in the main room was now nothing more than shattered dust and splintered wood. On the left wall was once a great bookcase filled with expensive and thick texts on various fields of Alchemy; it was now a shadow of its former self, covered in large gashes, burn marks, and impromptu confetti. The couch that had previously served as a guest bed was nearly in the same state, and barely functional as a sitting place. All in all, the place was simply a mess.

And Edward was taking every chance he could to complain about it.

"Look at this place, it's a total disaster." Ed cursed, kicking a nearby chunk of wood. The pichu he called Chimera, whom he had rescued earlier yesterday, was firmly perched on his shoulder and contently listening to Ed's previous swearing.

Sitting on the ruined couch was Daryn, the trainer brought from another world by the mad Alchemist Isorfold. For the first time since that night Daryn finally spoke up. "Sorry. It was so dark that I didn't realize the how much damage had been done. We might have kept this from happening if I told you what mismagious were capable of." Daryn said with obvious guilt, referring to the pokémon that had been caught at the end of the previous night's battle.

"Why are you apologizing? I was more involved than you were. And besides, I think our mongoose pokémon over there is more to blame than all of us." Ed pointed with his metal thumb in the direction of the pokémon in question, a zangoose.

Said pokémon, who was minding her own business in the corner of the room, simply grunted and glared at the other end of the room. Since the battle with the mismagious ended, she had been there the rest of the night and morning. Daryn really didn't feel like trying to return her to her pokeball.

"I may acknowledge that you're my trainer," Daryn remembered her saying to him in plain English, "But that doesn't mean I'll take orders from you. Don't push your luck human." Yeah, making the attempt probably wasn't a good idea.

"Anyway," Ed added, now sufficiently calmed down, "It's nothing a little alchemy can't fix." With that, the Fullmetal Alchemist clapped his hand and placed them over the remains of the coffee table. The familiar blue glow and lightning of a successful transmutation came and went as the shattered glass and wood came back together into a recognizable form. Daryn's eyes, as well as all the others, were on the display and wide with awe. Once over, Daryn, Rin (his ralts, whom had also been out since the fight), and the zangoose were staring at him.

"What?" Ed said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "It's just a little alchemy."

Something clicked in Daryn's mind at that. So that's it! Daryn thought… and blurted out. "Alchemy. That's how you were able to fight m- err, Zangoose earlier!" Shortly after the exclamation, another realization occurred to him, to which he added "Is it also why-"

"Why you're here? Yeah it is." Ed's tone was cold, and while he didn't say it, the unspoken addition to that sentence was clear. It's also why your here instead of my brother. The words stung the young trainer, causing him to turn his head away to the floor.

An uncomfortable, awkward silence filled the room. Ed quickly realized just what he had said and became disgusted with himself, wondering where Al was to scold him.

"Fang" Said the zangoose, breaking the silence and shocking Ed and Daryn appropriately. "My name, it's Fang*" She continued, hardly noticing the boys' gaze.

"…how can you talk?" Ed asked, still stunned. Mera perked up from his shoulder, seeming to become more interested.

"We don't know" Daryn answered for him and the zangoose.

"I can speak for myself, human."

"Yeah, we get that." Ed replied, shooting back with a glare. Despite his snippiness, Ed was still trying to figure out in his mind how the pokemon was the only one able to speak fluently, where other pokemon could not. And, of course, how the pokémon was able to speak in the first place.

Fang returned the glare. As Ed's mind tried to work at the mystery of her language ability, she tried to understand what Edward had earlier done. At least, that was what Ed assumed. He met her stare with his own, while Mera tried and failed to do the same.

Daryn would have laughed at the amusing sight, but he was frightened at the prospect of a fight breaking out between the two. He remembered their first fight when he first came to Amestris; both of them had been trying to kill each other, swinging sharpened claws and sharpened blades respectively. There was a tension between the two. It was a tension which was now escalating before him. The boy could have sworn he saw lightning clashing between their eyes. Even though he was not sure how, he knew that he had to end the scene now before it could truly escalate. Luckily for him, he would not need to.

THUD THUD THUD

Ed, Daryn, and the pokémon around them immediately turned their attention to the house's front door; where the sudden noise had come from. Each held a different expression. At the new distraction, Daryn and his ralts, Rin, bore nearly identical expressions of relief. Fang, on the other hand, looked annoyed that her impromptu staring contest had ended without a true victor. Mera, while as relieved as Daryn and Rin were, was also curious at the new noise. Edward simply looked exasperated.

"Now what is it?" Ed asked.

THUD THUD THUD

"THERE'S NO NEED TO HIDE, EDWARD ELRIC. I KNOW THAT YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Edward's expression turned from one of exasperation to one of horror.

"Who is that?" Daryn asked, stunned by the boisterous and masculine voice that had spoken.

"Major Armstrong" Ed replied, suddenly exhausted. "If we ignore him, he might go away."

Unfortunately, that would not be happening. Just as Ed finished his sentence the handle to the front door burst inwards, a large hand gripping it on the other side. The sudden force of the action itself propelled the door it was formerly attached open. Once it hit the wall, everyone present got a very clear look at the intruder. The expression they each shared now, both humans and pokémon, was the same. That expression being one of shock, fear, and horror.

xxxxx

It was a well-known fact back home that Mera was quite the heavy sleeper. She had been able to sleep through the heaviest of storms and through the loudest of snoring sleepers her family could throw at her, all without even the slightest impact to her sleep schedule. Taking this into account, she was quite frustrated with herself that morning. The entirety of the night before was spent sleeping peacefully, dreaming of ways to impress her trainer, Ed, and the praise that he would bestow upon her. Waking up brought the realization that that chance had come and gone. An entire battle had taken place between him, the zangoose now called Fang, the other trainer, and a mismagious of all things! All the while she slept away as if it was nothing more than a passing storm.

So, perched on her trainer's shoulder, she vowed that she would not miss another fight when one came. Even if it was against a zangoose. Although running might also be a good idea too sometimes, she quickly amended. That zangoose could throw quite a mean glare. She was quite glad that the man her trainer called Armstrong had ended their previous glaring session. She didn't want to know how far that could have escalated. His entrance had still been quite jarring, though. He had pounded more so than knocked, and then broke the door open to reveal himself.

The human was quite literally the largest human she had ever seen in her entire life, standing taller than the metal suit that had been travelling with her trainer, who, up until that point, had previously held the record. The freakishly large man wore a dark blue coat and pants, accentuated with yellow highlights and completed by a rather intimidating set of black boots. From his waist Mera could make out the silver glint of a chain that led to something in his pocket, similar to the chain one that led to her trainer's own pocket. The face of the large man was, to put it simply, imposing. His face was stone set, with a blonde mustache, a curl of hair on his blonde head, and hard blue eyes. His sudden entrance and overall appearance was frightening. Mera wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible.

That was precisely what her trainer did, arms raised in surprise.

But Armstrong wasn't finished with his entrance alone. The man's face was soon awash with tears that gushed like rivers from his eyes. "WHAT A TRAGEDY THIS IS!" The large man cried, ripping his coat and shirt off, revealing muscles to which even a machamp would be impressed. He flexed, and Mera could have sworn that she saw sparkles appear around him. "A DISASTER TRULY! TO LOSE YOUR VERY BROTHER IN SUCH TO AWAY TO A MAN LIKE ISORFOLD! PLEASE EDWARD, ALLOW THE COMFORTING EMBRACE OF THIS CHISELED PHSYQUE TO CONSOLE YOU IN YOUR TIME OF NEED!" The man moved uncomfortably close to Mera and her trainer, arms spread out in what could only be a bear hug.

"NO WAY!" The two screamed simultaneously, moving as far away from the man as quickly as possible. The other members of the room were also reacting to the scene in varying degrees of dismay. The other trainer, Daryn, had backed up as much as was conceivably possible onto the couch. Save for obscured eyes, his ralts had nearly mirrored his slack jawed expression perfectly. The zangoose was pressing herself into her corner further, flabbergasted at the display.

"What are you even doing here anyway, Major?" Ed asked once he was at a safe distance from the bizarre man.

"Why Ed, when the Colonel told me about what had happened, I had to see you immediately!"

"Of course it was Mustang" Ed cursed under his breath, muttering something else that, even from her perch on his shoulder, Mera couldn't quite make out.

Armstrong soon settled down and turned his attention to the other occupants in the room. His eyes widened once they caught the pokémon present in the room. "So these are the chimera that Mustang spoke of…" He muttered, voice trailing off. Mera frowned. There it was again. Why did they keep using her name as if it were some kind of species or something? Armstrong didn't say anything else about that once he finally noticed the room's damaged state. "Oh my. What happened here?"

Ed sighed. He'd been doing that a lot lately, Mera noticed. "It's a long story, Major. One you might wanna sit down for." Mera perked up at that. She was going to finally hear the grand tale of last night's battle! She hoped it would be good.

xxxxx

Alphonse was shoved none too lightly into the aluminum chair. The sound of metal hitting metal resounded in the sparsely decorated room. It was room that was standard made for interrogations. The only notable features were the two metal chairs on either side of a long table, also aluminum. The rest of the room was some combination of light grey or dark grey. The only other notable features were the occupants of the room. Alphonse, the boy in the suit of armor, and the two men in black uniforms opposite of him. Al knew what they wanted: information. The wanted to know why he was a suit of armor.

The two grunts were glaring hard at Al. The first one on the left he recognized as the man called Hanson, who had captured Tasha, Elina, and himself earlier that day. He briefly wondered about their well-being before reassuring himself that they were all right; he had to focus on the present. The man on the right was somebody Al had never seen before, wearing the same black uniform with the red R signifying their organization as Hanson wore. His hair was a greasy black and his eyes were the color of charcoal. He leaned against the wall while Hanson pulled out a chair and sat directly across from Al, his glare never faltering. Al returned the glare with one of his own, one that was more effective behind the faceplate of the helmet and the white orbs within.

"Why are you a suit of armor kid?" Hanson asked without faltering, despite the reverse intimidation.

Al almost laughed at the bluntness of the question. He didn't know much in the way of interrogation himself, but he was fairly sure that this wasn't the way one went about it. Al didn't respond.

Irritated by his silence, Hanson's eyebrows furrowed and his scowl deepened. "Look, we've got plenty of ways to get information out of you. All of them are rather unpleasant scenarios. So, why not do yourself a favor and tell us what we want to know? Make it easy."

Al almost laughed again. "You're not very good at this, are you?"

"What?"

Al sighed. "Sir, I don't mean to sound rude," He began, in a tone of politeness that he knew infuriated Hanson. "But there's not much you can do to threaten me. If you're thinking of torture, I have to ask what you could possibly do. I don't eat or sleep, and I don't feel pain or the temperature either." Alphonse said matter-of-factly, his tone flat. While these were advantages, what Al would not tell the man was that those were things he actually missed. Al shrugged his shoulders awkwardly; his hands had been bound behind his back, making the movement difficult overall.

Hanson's expression changed to one of consideration, having closed his eyes, pursed his lips, and turned his head away. A moment passed before Hanson began gritting and gnawing his teeth together in anger before returning his attention to the armored alchemist to give a particularly nasty glare. Al took pleasure in it, satisfied that he could be as infuriating as his brother when the need arose.

…

He suddenly realized he had compared himself to his brother. There was no way he was or could be as rude and impolite as his brother. No way. That was just a fluke caused by is situation. Yup.

"You've got guts, freak, I'll give you that." Hanson said, breaking Al out of his thoughts with the harsh jab. The man now bore a sinister expression. "How about that shinx? Or what about that girl we found you with? They seem nice." Al froze up at their mention, his hands now clenching tightly.

"You know," Hanson started as his grin grew wider, "We don't usually take prisoners. Too much can go wrong in detaining them. Something can happen to them on their way to their cells, something can go wrong inside their cells, and something can go wrong simply by feeding them. Especially when you're inexperienced or the prisoners are being unruly."

"You wouldn't!" Al cried, quickly standing up and knocking his chair backwards in the process. It hit the wall and fell to the floor in a loud clatter, but it was ultimately ignored.

Hanson laughed. "Hit a sore spot did we? But you're right, interrogations aren't my specialty. I prefer to take the more… physical approach." Hanson turned to the other man in the room, who had slipped behind Al while they was talking. "Isaac, take the helmet off."

The man, Isaac, grabbed the horsetail connected to the top of Al's head and yanked hard on it. Al cried out, but it was too late; there was no resistance as the helmet flung backwards. The man caught the helmet easily, but his eyes widened in horror at what was revealed.

"It's… empty." He stuttered.

"That's right." Hanson knowingly said. "It is."

Al inwardly sighed. He was getting real tired of people revealing his secret to everyone. Was this going to become a trend? The armored alchemist watched Hanson closely as he walked around the table towards him. He became visible tense when the man was right next to him, peering deep inside his armor body. On any other day, Alphonse would have recognized it as an impressive feat considering the height difference.

"So," He started, pointing at Alphonse's blood rune. "Let's start with that that drawing there. I'm guessing it's pretty important."

There was a clatter of metal on concrete before Isaac suddenly gabbed onto Alphonse, wrapping both arms as tightly as possible around his arms and torso. Alphonse was about fight back when Hanson jumped onto him from the front, angling himself above the hole where his head used to be and reaching inside into torso. Isaac was red in the face trying to hold Al down, but Hanson was in an excited frenzy, caught up in the moment.

"Is this what makes you tick!?"

Alphonse was quick to protest, flinging his arms as best he could. "No! Wait! Don't touch that, you'll-"

It was soon too late for him to do anything, however. The man had already brushed his fingers against his blood circle. It wasn't enough to alter the dried blood, but the action was enough to garter a major reaction. Al blacked out, his body becoming lifeless and limp. Isaac and Hanson quickly let go of him, causing the suit of armor to clatter down to the floor like a dead body. Both men moved away to either side of the room, their eyes as wide as dinner plates. They remained in their corners for a long moment, and the room became deathly quiet.

Isaac was the first one to break it. "You idiot!" He shouted, terror permeating his voice. "You've killed him! What the hell were you even thinking!? Do you have any idea what the boss will do to us now!?"

"Shut up! He's not dead." Hanson snapped back, frightened at the very real possibility that Aeros might tear him apart if the armor really was dead. "He's just… unconscious. Come on, let's get him back to his cell with the girl. And put that helmet back on him while you're at it."

xxxxx

To be captured and lose your own power may be considered defeat. But it may also be your opportunity to strike back. When your opponents believe they have won, an advantage has been gained. Ally accordingly, and prepare your counter offensive.

Next Time

Applications of Truth.

xxxxx

* Fang is a name that is forfeit to Phantom SunsSong, as it is assigned to her original character. Naming her was not meant as a means of taking her from her and making her my own; that would be stealing, and thus (at the very least) disrespectful. Naming her was simply done in the interest of ease in writing.