Cruel Discovery
xxxxx
There was a siren in the air. A blaring alarm that rang out and reverberated in the halls, offices, chambers, and otherwise unspecified rooms throughout the facility. Doors from all sides and from hallways opened all at once as a mass of the costumed thugs, the grunts of Team Rocket, dropped their business and came streaming out. They stampeded, running down the corridors like a flood of black cloth to find the source of the alarm. Some cursed, some were excited, and some were even yawning in spite of (or because of) the sudden commotion. But they all reached for the stored pokémon on their belts simultaneously, ready and eager for a fight.
"Prisoner Escape in Sector D14! Prisoner Escape in Sector D14! This is not a drill. We repeat, this is not a drill. All Team Rocket Personnel in Sector D13 are to head to Sector D14 and recapture the prisoner!" A garbled, electronic voice echoed out, emanating from black boxes in the top corners of the grey ceilings.
The crowd swelled, moving as directed by authority voice. They ran as fast as they could, making right and left turns until they came to a large metal door with "D14" emboldened across it. A moment passed, and as one they took slow steps forward before stopping once more. The crowd waited with apprehensive tension for anything that might be on the other side; waiting for the door to slide open. Anxious to respond… or attack.
What happened next caught the grunts off guard entirely. Suddenly, the door began to glow a bright blue hue and with it came a barely audible hum, like the ring of metal striking metal. Then there were flashes of lightning, also blue, and an accompanied sound akin to the tearing of fabric. Then the display ended... as the metal sliding door shattered into thousands of tiny flakes, showering over flinching grunts. An imposing metal suit was revealed standing behind it, it's appearance startling the crowd back a few various steps.
The armored boy wasted no time in taking advantage of the grunts stupefied delay. He charged at them, metal steps clanking, and slammed a metal fist into the first person he saw. The next grunt behind the toppling man got a kick in the gut, flinging him into another grunt behind him. Yet another to the grunt's left, barely getting a step away from Alphonse, received a slam from his armored forearm. Al wasn't done there, continuing his flurry of motion and knocking down everyone in his path. A kick there, a punch here, and even a complete flip of another one of the grunts; it was almost too easy, Alphonse thought.
Then, as if in response to that thought, a large, purple rat-like creature soared over the crowd, aimed at Alphonse. He briefly presumed that it belonged to someone in the crowd, and that it was likely a pokémon as well, noting its odd appearance. The armored teen was not so easily surprised by the jumping rat pokémon, however. Al dodged and caught it by its hind leg, startling the poor creature, and threw it at a grunt to his right, who was attempting (unsuccessfully) to sneak up on him. The pokémon choked out a sound, something like "ratata," as it hit the grunt. The grunt who took the blow, right into his chest, wheezed and collapsed to the ground.
Amongst the display, a space slowly grew around the fighting armored teen. Seeing that they were unable to take the on the young alchemist, half the grunts took another step back, while the other half gulped. It was then that a confident voice called out, catching Alphonse's attention as well as the crowd's and temporarily halting the action.
"Move aside people!" The voice yelled, somewhere down the corridor. "Go Hitmonlee!"
The crowd parted in two as the voice commanded, revealing a rather confident looking young man in a white uniform version of the grunts about, complete with the same large red R on the front. He threw out a red and white ball, where it split in middle air. The armored alchemist watched in awe as light like an incandescent liquid poured out and condensed into a form. When the light cleared and the form became clear, Al could only gawk at its absurdity. It had a human like figure, but appeared to be missing its head. Or rather, it had a head, but it was fused with the torso and was missing a nose and a mouth. Its arms and legs were thin, and appeared to be wrapped in bandages (at least he thought they were bandages) with 3 digit hands and feet at the ends. Combined with its brown coloring, the entire… thing looked "freaky-as-hell," as is brother would put it.
"Hitmonlee, use Brick Break!" Yelled the cocky thug, snapping Alphonse out of his stupor. The… hitmonlee's fist began to glow a bright yellow light and it rushed towards the armored boy. In that moment, Alphonse suddenly found himself brought back to his childhood, training with their teacher. He was sparring with his brother while trying to memorize her words about the flow of power, as his brother charged headlong into him. The hitmonlee became Ed to him in that instance, impatiently making the first strike.
As he always did when this happened, Alphonse change his position and spread his arms such that his right stuck out farthest and his left stayed close to his body. When the pokémon tried to strike at him he sidestepped, letting it stumble from lack of resistance. Quickly, Alphonse kicked out one of its legs from beneath and caught its right arm as it began to fall. Using the new found leverage, Al flung the pokémon around himself, throwing it at the nearest wall to his right.
"Lee?" The pokémon managed to squeak out in confusion before it crashed. In a stupor much like the armored alchemist had been in when he saw the creature, the pokémon stumbled backwards after picking itself up. Acting quick, Alphonse clapped his hands and slammed them onto the floor before the hitmonlee, conjuring stone tentacles out of blue lightning and white glow that wrapped themselves around the wide-eyed pokémon. Soon the display faded, and the tentacles that were so active before became solid and immobile. The pokémon was trapped.
The pokémon had what was perhaps the most shocked expression the young alchemist had ever seen, if only because of its unique features. Al turned back toward the group of goons and saw similar expressions on theme as well. Standing up to the full height his armor body gave and glowering downwards at them, Alphonse tried to be as intimidating as possible. From the way he saw their eyes widened further and mouths open wider, he succeeded.
"I'm only going to ask this once." The armored boy began in his best growl. "Where are the pokémon that you've stolen?"
Some of the grunts in crowd he could see were shaking, and others were sweating visibly; he heard the sound of several people gulping. None of them moved beyond that, however, and none spoke. Mentally sighing, Alphonse clapped his hands once more and placed his left hand on the wall beside him, producing a metal spear in a deliberately slow transmutation. This caused the crowd to shuffle back, while some grunts fled all together, all in greater fear.
"Well?" He growled again.
The white uniformed member from earlier made a quiet grunt, drawing Al's attention, and pointed a shaking finger down a left-hand corner.
"I-it's down that way. The pokémon. They're in Area D12. You can't miss it." He said with a cracking voice, pathetically.
Alphonse nodded before he threw his spear up into the air. The crowd watched as it spun up and then back down where it was caught in the armor's hands. He held it pointed at them, and with satisfaction he saw them all flinch simultaneously.
"Now leave!"
They wasted no time doing exactly that, scrambling to their feet and pouring out en masse out of the exits of the corridor. As the last remaining grunt ran dumbly to the end of the hall, Alphonse let out a long mental sigh. With the hall empty (save for the unconscious thugs and the restrained pokémon) he could finally give up the menacing façade. He almost collapsed to the floor, instead propping himself against a nearby wall. How his brother managed was beyond him; being menacing un-provoked was far harder than it looked, he thought. Then again, his brother was more suited to the role in the first place.
His brother. Where would he be right now? Was he panicking? Raging? Had he killed someone, perhaps Isorfold? Alphonse hit himself in the head, producing a metallic echo. There was no pain to be had in the action; the armored boy felt none. He needed to snap his thoughts away from his brother though, for they would only bring painful thoughts and lines of wonder. He had a job to do at the moment anyway.
Lifting himself off the wall, Alphonse walked with clanking steps back to the door he had alchemically deconstructed. With both hands cupped around his face (more out of habit then out of purpose), he yelled out with a tone of hidden worry. "It's all clear now! You can come on out, Elina!"
It was a moment before the girl in question poked he head out of the door frame, looking out in marvel with widened eyes at the scene about him. "Wow" She said, almost quietly. "You really did a number on these guys."
Alphonse scratched the back of his helmeted head sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I did, huh."
Elina's eyebrows narrowed downwards. "Will they be alright?" She asked, concern in her tone evident to the armored alchemist.
"They should be." Al started to say, before one of the unconscious grunts on the floor began moaning. If he had cheeks, they would be reddening. Al waved his hands about as Elina's eyes widened. "I didn't do anything too serious! They're just knocked out. That's all, really!"
Elina looked down at the unconscious bodies strewn about and back then back at Alphonse, holding arms close to herself and with upturned eyebrows. After a moment, she nodded with what Al could not doubt as anything but reluctance. "Well, if you say so. They're not really good guys, so I guess it's okay."
The armored boy would have laughed, but instead he turned to a hallway on his left, deciding to move on from the topic. It was the direction that the white-uniformed thug had earlier pointed out, and where Tasha probably was. He turned back to Elina, straightening his posture to stand tall, and pointed down the hallway.
"The pokémon are down that way, Elina. Follow me." He said, catching the girl's attention away from the floor.
She followed his pointing arm, and her expression hardened. Her brows narrowed, eyes seemingly became shaper, and her earlier concerned frown became one that was more clearly resolute. Like Alphonse had earlier, she brought herself up higher, then set her arms to her sides and balled up her hands into fists. With another nod, she began walking down the hallway, with the Alphonse following soon after.
Don't worry Tasha. I'm coming for you.
xxxxx
For the umpteenth time since my conversation with the espeon, I quietly groaned. I just couldn't get any sleep here. It did not matter how I positioned myself on the hard floor, I could not rest here in this concrete prison. The floor was cold, and with no bedding of any kind I was constantly left lying on the bones of my legs or my sides, and then they'd dig into some other part of my body. It was more than just physically uncomfortable, though. There was a mental discomfort too. I wasn't so sure about Ari's plan to escape. It seemed solid, but it hinged on the fact that I couldn't get caught grabbing the (literal) keys to our freedom. Ari made it clear that I simply wasn't going to be caught. Still, I wondered and worried. These humans were capable of blocking Ari's psychic powers; would they do the same to me? Or would she be beaten as punishment? It was obvious that Ari did not become so disheveled from being alone in a cell.
There was more that I wondered about, beyond that. What if we came across more humans once we got out? Obviously, we would either have to fight back or run, and I felt like that the former was more likely to happen then the latter; there was more of them than us. Was it in me to attack a human I wondered? I remembered my last fight before I came here, and the attack I used which almost… killed another pokémon. Maybe it was just because it was a battle, and I got carried away. And maybe the munchlax, Boro, who took the attack would have been alright. It was the memory of drawing blood, and his limp form in my memory, that horrified me beyond anything else. It left a bad taste in my mouth... literally too. It didn't stop me completely from fighting when I tried to defend Al and Elina against that floatzel. Yet still I wondered if I could actually harm a human without hesitation.
The longer I dwelled on it, the more I was reminded of my teeth drawing blood against Boro, and I began to fell nauseous. So my thoughts turned towards Alphonse. I was resolute that he was alive, but there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind, with the combined voice of Ari and Serene, telling me that I was wrong. Images of his armor body, torn to scraps, lying lifelessly on the ground before a group of humans and pokémon flashed sporadically through my imagination. I shivered, fighting back the moisture in my eyes that threatened to become tears at the thought. Then there was the girl, Elina, and her own beaten and bloody body joined Al's in my head as soon as I remembered her. I jumped up, shaking my head and shouting inwardly that such a thing couldn't be true. Still I wondered, what were these humans doing to them?
Standing up, and sore, I walked a distance into the middle of our cage and turned my attention to the door to our prison, outside the cage's door. It hadn't changed, but I noticed a detail I had somehow missed on my first viewing of the room. There was a window, clouded white, but still clear enough to see through to the other side. My eyes widened; how did I miss that? I moved closer, trying to see beyond our room, but the window was too high up and I was too small down to catch any details beyond the grey tiles of the ceiling that lay beyond.
My eyes narrowed, and I took steps back instead, stopping only when my tail scratched up against the cold, gritted surface of the concrete wall behind me. With the added distance and a new angle, I was able to see more of the area that lay beyond the doorway. Despite that my new vantage point barely provided a better field of view, I was able to see a concrete wall some distance behind; it was a hallway. I tried moving around to change my field of view outside the window, but I all I got was more wall and more ceiling.
At this point, Ari had perked her head up to watch me shuffle about, her head tilted in clear confusion. "What are you doing?" She asked in an incredulous tone.
"I'm trying to see outside." I replied, without turning to face her. I moved to the left a little bit, closer to the espeon, but kept my gaze focused solely on the door and what lay past it. Once again I saw nothing.
That was until the top halves of two blurred, but distinguishable people appeared close to the window, facing each other. I jumped backwards at their sudden appearance, startled, and almost hit the wall behind me. Ari jumped upwards too, standing to full attention and staring intently at the door that I was also staring at with wide eyes. The details weren't perfect, due to the white blur of the glass, but I was able to catch a color of black and red on what I was sure were uniforms.
They hadn't moved since first appearing, but they weren't facing the door to their cell. They instead stared at each other, their heads moving about as the outlines of their mouths opened and closed. They were evidently talking to each other, but I found it odd at how stiff their movements were. Were they scared or tense about something? Or were they talking about us? The thought that something wasn't right ran through my anxious mind, before a third figure suddenly appeared. He was a larger human, wearing what I thought was a white version of the other figures' black uniforms. It was difficult to tell, but I was sure that I saw him yell at the both of them and point a finger (or at least an arm) down the left side of the window; down the hall. They saluted the white-clad figure and quickly ran down the pointed direction, the first human trailing close behind them.
Ari sighed, disappointment practically pouring off of her in waves. "It was just a false alarm."
I nodded, my stomach sinking in my own disappointment. Still I kept my attention focused on the window of the door. I didn't know why, but I was compelled to watch and wait as if something else were bound to happen. I growled quietly in frustration; If only I could see more!
Ari, on the other paw, had resigned herself back towards the corner of the room. There she lied herself down, dropping in a heap, and once more began to wait patiently. She glanced quickly in my direction, and I turned away to avert her gaze. Could that be me, I wondered? She was ragged in appearance and there was a look of what I was sure was despair in her eyes; there way she held herself in a slump with drooping shoulders and a head held low. Could that be me, I wondered? She was an espeon, evolved from the love and care of a trainer. Despite that, here she was in this decrepit state.
I turned back to her, finally tearing my attention away from the window, with a question on my mind. I hesitated in asking, however, opting instead to stare at her curled up form, shrouded by the dim light of our cell. I remembered the last time I asked, and received a heated answer. Still the question burned in my head, urging to be released. A moment passed in the crushing silence before I finally decided to break it. Carefully and quietly I asked: "Ari, what was your trainer like?"
As soon as the words left my mouth, I was already regretting it. A wave shame came over me, and I was tempted to take back my question and tell the espeon thatshe didn't have to answer. It was too late. Ari's head had already shot up, and she was staring at me with narrowed eyes and a deep scowl. Immediately I looked away, unable to look at her piercing gaze. It was a long moment before I finally heard her speak, and by then I still couldn't bare to look at her.
"My trainer..." She started to say, voice uneven as she stressed the second word yet kept her tone tired. "My trainer… she was kind, and caring, and ...considerate." Her voice cracked and I finally looked back at her. She had turned her head to look at the floor, eyes darkened.
Then she was looking again back at me, eyes moist, narrowed, and angry, and I was once again overcome with the desire to turn away. I only just barely managed to maintain eye contact, despite the sudden coldness I felt coming from her. "She was there for me like you'd expect a trainer to be." Ari continued. "But now she is gone. I... we are on our own. That's all you need to know."
Once again I was unable to keep looking at her, so I turned my attention back towards the window. With that, silence descended on us again, leaving us alone with our thoughts in the dim light of our barren cell. Ari, undoubtedly with her thoughts of escape, or maybe of her trainer, and me with my own thoughts of guilt. The espeon had been trying to move on, or forget about her trainer, and my bringing it up probably wasn't helping matters. Still I had to consider the relationship she used to have, the love and loyalty she felt, because I was considering what mine was towards Alphonse was. Back in the forest, for the sake of appearances, I had agreed to say that he was my trainer. Before this madness with other worlds and alchemy, even considering the idea of a trainer was out of the question. To be caught and used against my will in battle against another pokémon was sickening and undeniably wrong to me. Then came the boy in the armor who was kinder than most others I've met, and then came a mad scientist trying to build an army out of pokémon, and now I wasn't sure.
There was loud bang, followed by the clangs of metal and a sound akin to the tearing of fabric that ripped me away from my thoughts. Outside the window, to my shock, were flung the three humans that I saw earlier. In an instant Ari and I shot to the end of the room where we could see the most, standing side by side each other. The two of us looked intently outside the hall; Ari with body tensed, while hope was swelling up inside me. Could it be, I wondered? Could it be Alphonse?
At that moment, the wall left of the door began to glow a bright blue hue, and arcs of lightning began to dance about it. The scene startled Ari, and she jumped backwards into the corner of our cell with her fur on end and eyes wide. I, however, stood my ground, the fur on my spine prickling in excitement. My eyes widened and a large, open smile grew on my face as a set of double doors formed from the light. As soon as the doorway was complete and the light and sounds of the transmutation died down it was flung open, light from the hallway pouring in and revealing an unmistakable figure. He's alive, I thought with a pounding heart. Al is really alive!
"Tasha!" Was the joyful exclamation that Al let out as he ran towards me, metal feet clanking all the way. He didn't have to run for long; I ran to meet him, jumping up and into his open arms. He caught me without problem, and soon I was being squeezed between his armored torso and arms. Before I could protest that I couldn't breath I was being held outwards in his hands, his helmeted head level with my beaming face.
"Oh thank goodness. You're alive!" We exclaimed together at the same time, causing us to pause and chuckle. After that, Al put me down, and I was able to catch another figure revealed in the light from the newly created doors. For a moment I tensed up, then I recognized with relief that it was only the girl from earlier, Elina. Good, I thought, she's alive and well too.
"I was so worried about you, Al." I said, voice beginning to crack. "I thought… I was beginning to think they killed you."
"You thought I was dead?" Al asked, pointing to himself. I hesitantly nodded.
"What about yourself!?" He suddenly yelled, causing me to step back, startled. "You shouldn't have worried about me; I would have been fine. Why didn't you worry about yourself? You were in more danger than I was."
"I'm… sorry, Al." I barely stuttered out, still stunned by his outburst. I looked downwards to my feet, and back to Alphonse, brows wrinkled. I did worry about myself, but compared to Al's welfare, it was barely a priority.
Before I could say as much, Ari finally spoke up from the corner, voice barely above a whisper and shaking. "He's big, and metal…" Then her eyes narrowed and her scowl deepened as she began to growl. "And the wall… how did he do that, Tasha? Is this your… trainer?" She didn't look at me when she asked, her attention focused solely on Alphonse before us and occasionally flickering to Elina behind him.
Al shifted where he stood, turning to look at the espeon for the first time. He gasped when he saw he fully, seemingly appalled by her ratty condition. I didn't blame him.
"What did they do to you? Are you alright?" He took a short step forward, bending over in an attempt to lower himself to Ari's level.
It didn't work. The espeon only became more tense, her fur standing further up and giving her feral appearance. Combined with her ragged appearance, she became the very image of a cornered pokémon.
"They've abused her, Al," I began to say, getting his attention. "These humans captured her and killed her trainer, and are using that collar to choke her abilities."
Alphonse gasped at that and turned to look at Ari again. I looked too, and I saw her shoot me a piercing glare, causing me to flinch. She kept her stare focused solely on the armored boy before us afterword, however, and I was able to recover quickly. Before Alphonse could take a step forward, as I saw him about to, I slowly and deliberately approached Ari, getting in between him and the espeon as I did so.
"Ari, it's alright. We can trust him. He's only here to help." I said, trying to assure her.
Ari shot me another glance, this time less intense, and her fur began to relax, her expression becoming less severe. She looked back at Alphonse again, and while I saw her fur bristle once more, it was only temporary. She looked at him with narrowed eyes and a frown, but it was the same face that she used whenever she spoke with me. Hesitantly she took a step towards the suit of armor, still tense, but somewhat more at ease than she was when she was pressed against the corner.
For Alphonse, this seemed to be a signal that it was safe to approach her, which he did, albeit slowly. When he was within arm's reach of the espeon, however, she tensed up again, fur standing back on end. Al paused for a moment, and I held my breath, but he continued stepping closer and tried to touch the black collar her neck. Ari, was having none it, however. The espeon lashed out just as his fingers were about to brush up against the collar, biting viscously into his unfeeling, empty hand.
Alphonse, unfazed by her sudden attack, began to speak in the kindest and most gentle voice I'd ever heard from him. "It's alright now, Ari. I'm here to help."
To my surprise and awe, Ari actually relaxed and let go. Then again, Al does seem have that effect, I realized. Alphonse clapped his hands and carefully placed them on the espeon's collar, and to my further surprise, there was a flash of blue light and electricity; the tell-tale signs of alchemy. How was he able to do that? I wondered with wide eyes. There wasn't a circle at all!
I wasn't the only one who started at Al's use alchemy. After the lights died down and the collar fell to the floor in a resounding metallic echo, twisted and misshapen, Ari jumped away with wide eyes and bared teeth. I felt myself begin to panic when I saw the gem on her forehead begin to glow a bright pink. What would she do with her regained psychic powers? She stared intently at Alphonse, and a faint pink outline appeared around his armor. I realized tool late with horror that she was using a psychic attack. Before I could interrupt or protest, however, her face twisted in what I could only guess was horror, and she dashed right underneath Al's legs and around a startled Elina to make a beeline towards the newly created door.
"Ari! Ari, come back!" I cried, running after her. When I made it outside the hallway in a fruitless attempt to catch her and stop her from doing something stupid, she was gone. The hallway was bare, and with no sign of the espeon anywhere. I couldn't help but wonder forlornly what she would do, and where she would go.
The slow clanking of Al's metal feet brought me back to reality as he left our cell with Elina in tow, who was looking down the hall with upturned eyebrows and wide eyes like I had. Al, on the other hand, was holding his helmet with his right hand, somehow appearing distraught and dazed, staring into space.
After a long moment, he spoke in a quiet and hoarse voice. "It was like… like she was inside my mind, poking around. It was awful…" I shuddered at that. A psychic pokémon would no doubt try reading minds, and it would no doubt be disturbing for the recipient, I was sure.
We stood there in the hallway for a long moment before we heard the stepping of feet behind us and the shouts of Elina tearing us out of our thoughts. "Hey Al! Come over here! I think I've found something!" She yelled, voice quivering.
The both of us turned around quickly and found her standing the other end of the hallway. Her head was poking out from behind an open door with the words "STORAGE" written in bold across a glass plane. From her wide eyes and worried frown, whatever was behind the door and in the "STORAGE" room was a cause for concern. Al and I immediately ran over to her position, where she then opened the rest of the door fully and revealed to a sight I almost couldn't believe.
xxxxx
"Our inventory currently stands at 536 pokémon captured over the past month. Not much of an improvement from our last numbers, but under our current circumstances it's more than would normally be reasonable."
"That's excellent news to hear. You've been working hard at your position. I'm proud to call you a member of Team Rocket."
"I'm flattered sir. Personally I think there's still room for improvement among the grunts. It's disconcerting that most of them are still using rattatas and zubats."
"Ha ha! What an attitude! One of the best and you're still not satisfied. At your rate you'll make vice in no time."
xxxxx
Alphonse's armor body trembled in anger, the metal plates and pads of his body clattering against each other. His fists were gripped tight such that if there was anything in his hands before, it was now ground to dust. The white-red orbs that occupied the eye holes of his helmet had sharpened to pinpricks. Indeed, the very emotion of fury almost poured off of him. It was to the point that his companions took a cautious step away from him, yet maintained a steady, horrified gaze on the scene before them.
How could they! He raged inside. These monsters! This is just wrong! These thoughts and other less pleasant, vulgar ones raced through his mind at break-neck speeds. Instead of acting out and striking at an object nearby, as he felt the need to, all that Al did was stand there in horror.
That sight was, of course of pokémon. It wasn't the sight of pokémon alone that enraged him, it was their condition. All kinds of colors, shapes, and sizes of pokémon were being kept in cages stacked besides and on top of each other. Some might have been adorable while others may have been absolutely viscous. Regardless of their predisposed appearances, they all bore the same ragged, abused bodies that Al had seen on Ari the Espeon earlier.
He saw a black, restraining collar on a couple of pokémon here, a metal brace on even more pokémon there, and even some metal casing completely enclosing the head of a pokémon in the back. Every sign of a black market trade that Alphonse had ever heard or read about was represented perfectly in this storage room, within the base of Team Rocket. It was worse than how Isorfold was treating pokémon, Alphonse thought, brisk with anger.
The armored alchemist really wanted to hurt someone then and there.
xxxxx
"I assume the pokémon are in storage and ready for transfer?"
"Of course, sir. If you'd like, I can have each and every single one delivered by the next morning through the underground channels. Just say the word, sir."
"That's not necessary at the moment. Keep up your progress; see if you can't double your inventory. Then I'll require that you deliver them. Its getting harder and harder to maintain business, so the more we can move discretely the better. Those are your standing orders as of today. Do you understand?"
"Absolutely, sir. Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"
"No, that will be all. Unless, of course, you have something else to report?"
"Not particularly. Except…"
"Except?"
"We did recover something odd today, sir. Some of my grunts, led by Hanson, recovered a boy. Or at least, we think he's a boy."
"Pardon?"
"He was wearing a suit of armor when he was found. When his helmet was removed so that we could see who he was, however, we found that he was empty inside. He could somehow walk and talk while being a hollow suit of armor."
"Well now. That is interesting. What have you done with this animated suit of armor?"
"He's been taken down for interrogation, sir. After my men have gleaned all the information they can get out of him, I'll have him taken apart for further analysis."
"Ha! You're as cold as always, Aeros. I shall expect more good fortunes in your next report."
"As you wish and command, President Giovanni."
xxxxx
Alphonse's metal and black leather fist slammed into the nearest surface besides him, a concrete wall. The impact resulted in a resounding clang that echoed throughout the large, warehouse-sized Storage room. He pulled his fist away from the wall slowly, which revealed a considerable dent and cracks. As he brought his shaking hand back to his side, the sound from his sudden strike started getting the pokémon to stir. When they did, shrieks and yells started up.
Elina cast a look at him, her expression solemn. "It's awful, isn't it? It's just-"
"Awful is an understatement." Al interrupted sharply, his voice low. He didn't see the young girl flinch in reaction.
Slowly, he began walking down the room, avoiding the faces of his companions as they eventually followed his clanking footsteps. With every few steps he took, Al would pass a cage, then another, and then another. At the sight of them, the pokémon inside grew more restless and active, shouting and reaching out with manic faces on their varied forms. Their voices carried curses and begging, with undertones of sadness or rage. Some even tried to attack them; streams of fire or water would hit uselessly against the bars or planes of glass that restrained their freedom. In the face of it all, Al was only relieved by the fact that Elina couldn't hear what was being said.
He was horrified by everything else.
"You damn humans!" Yelled a grey and white, cat-like pokémon with a curly tail as it swiped at the air beyond its claws.
"How could you do this to us?!" Cried another pokémon with a round, blue body and big ears alongside a ball tipped tail. It was slumped up against front of its cage, weeping from red, angry eyes.
"You're evil! EVIL!" Cried yet another pokémon with a small, child-like yet muscular body and golden fins on its head; it rocked back and forth against the metal bars.
"Give me back my son!" Yelled an orange, dragon like pokémon with misshapen wings and a collar much like the one he had seen on Ari's neck earlier.
"Leave us alone." Whimpered a far smaller pokémon, one with purple fur and a body similar to the monkeys he had seen in a book someplace when he was child. It was curled up inside its tail, which was tipped with a hand-like appendage.
"Please… just let us go!" A dark blue bipedal pokémon with feline features and red feathers shouted, tears streaming profusely down its face.
"The pain… it won't stop. Why won't it stop?!" A white and brown pokémon with a rounded body and a spikey crown screamed as it slammed its head against the floor of its cage. It held its head with arms wrapped completely black shackles, and around its neck was yet another black collar.
"I'll kill you!" Another pokémon that had extensive scars all over its body, pink all over with a curl of hair on its head and brown colored ears, shouted as it pressed its face against the metal bars. "I'll kill all of you humans!"
"Big brother?"
Alphonse Elric froze up at the voice. Slowly, he turned to look at the source. It was a small pokémon, white and grey metal plates covering its body, and two large eyes. One was cerulean blue with a black pupil, while the other was a clouded grey. Like many of the pokémon here, tears were streaming profusely from its eyes.
A hauntingly familiar presence came over him then. It was the feeling of helplessness. Images of Nina Tucker, as a human and as a chimera flickered through his mind, and he realized just how similar the situation was. Even without the factor of alchemy, Alphonse was still born witness to awful mistreatment.
"You're a monster!" Yelled the muscled pokémon from before.
"Why can't you human's leave us alone?" The purple pokémon anguished from behind the appendage of its tail.
"You're all evil! You and your race! All of you!" Shouted the pink, brown eared pokémon again.
"I'll kill you!" The grey cat pokémon shouted as it smashed its face up against the bars of its cage.
"Where's my big brother?"
That was the last straw. Suddenly, Alphonse's voice exploded throughout the warehouse sized room, carrying above the anguished cries and mournful whimpers of the pokémon around him. "STOP" He cried. "STOP"
Whether it was by his command or by their own surprise, the room became silent and still. Al stood there, in between the columns of captured pokémon alongside his companions, Tasha and Elina, in the deafening silence for a long, almost unbearable moment. It was almost overbearing, so when it was finally broken the soft clanks of Al's moving feet, which were now comparable to crashing steel, they flinched. He moved slowly forward down the columns of the now silent cages, staring straight ahead and avoiding their faces, and ignoring the sounds of his companion's reluctant, following steps. After some distance forward, the armored alchemist turned to look back at them with the expressionless face of his iron helmet and glowing the glowing red orbs of his eyes.
xxxxx
When Al finally stopped, he was able to see our stunned and grimaced faces. The girl, Elina, was looking at the him with wide eyes, and a small, open mouthed frown. She held herself into a barely stable stance, with her arms held close to her chest and her legs spread apart into wide stance, shaking every now and then. From how the expression on her face deepened as she looked about the cages of trapped machop, aron, sneasel, and almost countless other species of pokémon, I could only imagine her thoughts were of the horror. My own thoughts weren't that different. My expression was grimmer however. I stared downwards at the ground with furrowed brows, biting my tongue. My body was shaking, trembling with a mix of emotions I couldn't identify as I avoided as much as possible the burning stares of the pokémon about us, who had no doubt finally noticed me after Al's outburst.
I stood there alongside Elina, my fur just barely brushing her legs, some distance away from Al, who looked over his shoulder at us, the red orbs of his helmet just barely visible. The silence that had returned after Al stopped moving became ever pervasive once more, bearing down on us almost like it was a crushing force. It was easily the loudest part of the room we stood in. Eventually I could bare it no longer and began walking forward, my sight set on Alphonse. When I reached the back of his legs, I sat down quietly, craning my neck so that I could set my eyes on his.
"We should free them, Al" I pleaded, looking up at him from my spot at the back of his feet. "They don't deserve this. No pokémon… nobody deserves this."
Al looked away. "We can't." He said quietly, his voice strained. I stood up, eyes sharpening and mouth opening as I was about to snap at him, to ask why not, but he continued and interrupted me. "We can't. Not without risking harm to ourselves."
That gave me pause, and I looked around the cages of pokémon about us. Silent as they had become, I could clearly make out the expressions of pain and defeat on many of their faces… and of anger and hatred on many others. Then I was struck with the images of their futile assaults on their cages; the captured charizard breathing fire at unyielding glass, the machop pounding uselessly on the bars of his cage, and the scarred clefairy smashing his head against the barriers of his own. Then their shouts and calls for blood that came after, and I was forced to look away, shutting my eyes tight and turning my head to the ground.
Al was right, I realized. It didn't matter what they were in the past, the pokémon around us were now were barely more than viscous and hysterical beasts. It was no doubt a result of the treatment the humans here had given them. For a moment I considered releasing them again. If I pleaded, I knew Al would agree, but I shot the thought down quickly. There was no telling who of the freed pokémon would be thankful, and who would lash out and attack. Frustration bubbled up within me as my claws slid out and scratched at the floor unconsciously. My teeth ground against each other as my eyes bored into the concrete floor, thoughts for and against releasing the imprisoned pokémon shooting back and forth throughout my head. They need to be freed, the thought echoed constantly, but they might kill us if we do, another echoed back.
The sound of Al's clanking feet, and his shadow as he stepped around me tore me away from my thoughts. I was up instantly, head turned to the side and watching in confusion as he made his way towards Elina, who was looking at him with concerned eyes. When he stepped past her, without a glance my own concern grew, and I ran to follow him. It was when he was hallway back to the door we entered from that Elina began shouting at him to wait, and that the wails of the pokémon started up again, almost drowning her out.
"Get back here, you beasts!"
"Let me out, please!"
"I'll rip your throat out! Tear you to pieces!"
"Leave us alone!"
At each plea for freedom and demand for blood I flinched, stepping out of rhythm. Alphonse paused for only a single a second, and my expression grew hopeful, but then he seemingly regained his composure and continued moving forward. Elina had grown quiet in the ruckus yet kept an even, quick walking pace with the much larger armor in front of us, forcing me to run every now and then when a particular voice from a pokémon here or there caught me.
Eventually we reached the room's entrance and exited immediately. In reality, we probably weren't in there for more than a few minutes, but I couldn't help but feel like it was an eternity. Immediately a let a breath, and the lump in my throat, which had developed at some point while we walked among the cages, lessened. Still I head their cries behind me, until I saw Al walk over to the steel door and begin to shut it, the sounds of the pokémon inside quieting as he did so. With a click, the door was closed and silence reigned, much to my internal relief, despite my still worried and pained expression.
"Alphonse, we have to help them." Elina said as soon as the screams quieted, her voice stern.
Alphonse didn't respond. He stood there at the door for minutes, leaning his armored head against the solid surface and digging his iron horn into the steel. I took a step closer, quietly saying his name to get his attention. It seemed to work, for the armor shifted, but he did not regard me or Elina beside us. Instead he began moving down the hall, armored feet clanking, and forcing us to follow.
I frowned but did just that, walking a short distance behind the young girl as we caught up to Alphonse, who had stopped and was closely examining the wall before him. For a moment I was confused. Then I looked at the wall he was looking at and saw what appeared to be a map detailing the floor we were on. How I had come to know what a map was in the first place confused me, until I remembered how I had suddenly understood the concepts of alchemy when we first arrived, and decided to save the questions for later. I took a closer look at the map that Alphonse was now trailing his figures across.
The map was a detailed, bird's eye view of the floor we were on. Hallways sprawled this way and that way, crisscrossing in grids that made up most the map. In between the hallways were a number of rooms, different in sizes, and given combinations of numbers and letters that I couldn't fully understand, so I ignored them. Instead I focused my attention on the most defining feature of the map; the large red arrow pointing to a combination of words that said "You Are Here" in bold.
It was a full minute before I realized exactly what that meant, and what it meant that I understood. I started, my eyes widening in surprise. Just as I had suddenly understood the fundamentals of alchemy and the words for certain human objects, so too had I understood human language. I excitedly realized how amazing it was, before I began to wonder why. There's no way that it's a coincidence, I thought, no longer paying attention to the map ahead of me that Alphonse was still observing. There has to be a connection.
When Alphonse exclaimed triumphantly, however, I was snapped out of my wondering. He turned around, his arms held against his hips, and gave Elina and me a determined stare, the orbs of his eyes burning bright. For our part, we gave him more confused and frustrated looks. He paused for a moment, than made a noise that was akin to somebody clearing their throat, as if he was about to speak.
Elina wouldn't have it though.
She exploded at Al, yelling with an enraged expression. I flinched back, scared and surprised as she started her outburst. "What are you doing? Did you hear anything that I said or asked at all!?" She was pointing a figure directly at the face of his helmet now. "No! You weren't, were you!? You were too busy ignoring those pokémon that we should be helping right this instant!"
Al and I both flinched at the harshness of her words, and Elina paused before continuing again. "Did you even care about them? I thought you would free them, Al! They needed to be freed! Why did you ignore them!?"
It was at this point that Alphonse finally responded while I could only stand back and watch the scene before me, expression distraught. "I didn't ignore them!" He snapped back, standing up to his full height and towering over the girl. "What good would it have been if they tried to kill you when I freed them?!"
"This isn't the time for us to be fighting!" I shouted, trying to get their attention. Al gave pause, turning his head to glance at me, but Elina didn't.
"You don't know that's what would've happened, Al!" She responded, unwavering in front of the armored boy that towered over her.
"I do know that's what would've happened, Elina." He replied moving closer to her with his own pointed finger.
I started at that, my eyes widening. I took another step forward "Al, wait!" I yelled, realizing what he was beginning to say. My cries went ignored, however.
"Oh really? How!?" She shouted, her face a hairs width away from the face of his helmet
"Because I heard them say so!"
I flinched hard at that, palming my face with a paw. Alphonse paused as well, his armor shifting and arm dropping to his side as he realized what he had just said. It was too late to take it back, however, and the effects of his words were immediate; Elina was looking at him as if he had just grown an extra head.
"What?"
xxxxx
This knowledge you that you have now is dangerous, and will draw more danger towards you. If you seek to escape it, then you must find those that are even more dangerous. For the path that you have taken will not give you the chance to run away.
Next Time
Chance Encounter with a Dragon Master