Battle Torrent
"Good grief, I'm actually doing this aren't I?"
The horn on his helmet dug into the metal of the fused doors before him, causing a deep scratch against the surface as he pressed his head against it. His arms hung loose against his sides, long having fallen away from the elevator entrance after his transmutation. Had he a face to express with, his eyes would have looked exhausted and his mouth set into a heavy frown. Some people might have found it fortunate that he couldn't, given the current situation, and it might have been considered a blessing. Alphonse did not, however; he was always acutely aware of what he didn't have. Especially Tasha and Elina, having just ensured their escape. Although enforced is more like it, Alphonse sullenly thought to himself. The armored Elric brother let out a sigh...or at least the closest approximation of it, acutely aware of his inability to taste the air.
Alphonse shook his head, and nearly jumped at the immediate screeching of his horn scratching against the elevator doors. Once he recovered, however, the Elric brother took relief in the impromptu reality call, now brought back to the present. He looked at his handiwork on the elevator doors, perfectly fused shut with barely any transmutation marks to hint that it had been anything else. With it came the assurance that Elina and Tasha would escape safely, and Al nodded to himself after looking it over.
"Well, that's step two of the plan completed," The armored alchemist said to himself with hands pressed against his torso. Turning around to face the rest of the hallway that went back into the base, his arms once again fell against his sides as his posture slumped over. "What were the rest of the steps again?" He asked himself, scratching the back of his helmet with his left hand.
Alphonse pressed his fist into his face plate, and let out a groan. He had been separated from his brother for hardly more than a day and here he was setting out to do something equally as pigheaded as something the older would have done. Al's thoughts darkened in acknowledgement of that fact, however; he was truly and completely separated from Edward. While the armored teen knew now that the animals and people used as payment to transfer Pokémon from this reality remained alive after the ordeal, his brother did not. Even the very fact that he was in another reality was sobering on its own, but the added notion that his older brother was left to his lonesome weighed deep on his soul.
Silence filled the hallway after the hum of the elevator's movement stopped, yet the sudden quiet served to knock Alphonse out of his depressing train of thoughts and back to the current situation. Edward wasn't here, but Alphonse was, and he couldn't just run away from what he saw. The images of the tortured and abused Pokémon stored away like consumer products still burned constantly at the forefront of his mind. With renewed determination, the armored alchemist continued forward down the hallway, a plan of attack already forming in his head.
He got two steps before he slipped and fell flat on the ground, the loud clattering of metal on concrete ringing throughout the hallway.
"What just…?" Was all that Alphonse was able to groan out from the floor before he slowly picked himself back up. Tilting his armored head in confusion, the Elric brother glanced down at the steel sole of his foot. It was faint but undeniably there: a wet spot on his heel where it met the floor. Shifting over to inspect the floor, Alphonse noticed a slightly larger darkened splotch on the exact spot where his foot had landed. Running two of his fingers over the spot and bringing them closer to his face plate for better inspection, the Elric brother was able to identify what the liquid was. He was tempted to recoil in disgust.
"Spittle? Do they spit in their own base? That's just gross!" Alphonse said, utterly repulsed as he lifted himself off the ground, briefly grateful that he couldn't show any embarrassment from slipping in the first place. As the armored alchemist climbed back up, however, he noticed more details that made him pause. While much of the floor was scuffed from frequent foot traffic, showing multiple dirt smudges in the shape of various footprints, there were deep claw marks in certain areas of the tile and along the concrete walls.
If Alphonse had the ability to narrow his eyes, he certainly would have. Experience in more than just a few fights during adventures with his brother informed him that these were telltale signs of a fight. While the armored Elric brother was certainly getting into a lot of those that day, he didn't remember getting into one at the entrance hallway. Alphonse then considered that the spittle was still wet enough to cause him to slip in the first place (gross!), which likely meant…
I'm not the only one picking a fight with these goons, the Elric brother thought. Briefly he thought of the purple cat-fox Pokémon that he freed earlier, but one quick glance again at one of the claw marks along the floor and he dismissed it. They were too big to belong to her. With that realization, Alphonse continued on through the hallway warily, making sure to keep his palms close together. The armored alchemist tried sliding his feet across the floor instead of outright walking to try to reduce the sound of his armor, but soon gave up after the effort only created more noise from the scratching of his steel boots. Granted, he was trying to get Team Rocket to focus on him in the first place so perhaps that wasn't a bad idea, he thought to himself.
He was at the T-intersection where the hallway ended when he halted his movement, hearing the sounds of movement further down on the right side of the junction. Straining his non-existent ears to listen, he heard the signature sound of boot soles slapping against the ground and soft thumps of what were likely Pokémon feet. It was not a cacophony, so he was able to tell it was a small group. If Alphonse had to guess, it was a single human and a Pokémon. The Elric brother considered them: the former he could take if it was another Team Rocket grunt, but the latter might be a problem if it proved tougher than the others that he had encountered so far. He wondered if it was perhaps the same individuals who had gotten into the fight that left the claw marks and spit he noticed earlier, but he dismissed it. There wasn't the sound of clicking that would have come from claws hitting against the tile. As Alphonse held these rapid thoughts, however, the sound of footsteps came to a halt just around the corner.
The faint orbs of light behind Al's helmet narrowed at the development as he stood still, slowly bringing his hands to touch against each other. This was either his chance to get the jump on the pair, or they were gearing up to do the same, in which case he would have to react fast, the alchemist thought to himself tensely. Deciding to take the former approach, Alphonse quickly stepped out from his side of the corner, ready to slap his palms on the concrete wall behind him for a quick transmutation.
"Aqua Jet!"
And then he stepped right into the path of a living water bullet.
Like being on the receiving end of a Slam attack, I stood there, stunned. It was only when the elevator came to a complete stop, letting out a soft ding as the two metal doors slid away into the walls, revealing yet another hallway, that I finally managed to get over my shock. In its place came indignation and hurt. He was planning this from the beginning, he didn't want me- I shook my head, stopping that particular train of thought before it could really get started. That wasn't what this was, it couldn't be, I told myself.
Do yourself a favor and keep your faith away from humans. They'll tear it away from you, and they'll leave you behind completely. For you, it might have already happened.
Those were Ari's words. Could they be right, I wondered? That didn't seem like Alphonse, and yet…
"Tasha?"
I turned my head up to the voice, startled. It was Elina, looking over her shoulder and down at me. She was standing in the hallway, mid-stride. She must have already walked out while I was still standing there. I stopped gazing at the floor and walked over to the young girl, coming to a stop next to her legs. Not long after I did, the metal doors of the elevator slid back together, closing off the way back down and any vestigial chance of getting back to Alphonse. She looked down at me, wearing the same concern and shock on her face as I held on my own.
"Alphonse didn't...abandon us, did he?" Her eyes met mine when she asked, and there was something pleading within them. Or at least, that's what I thought I saw. The way my own eyes were being slightly reflected in hers, it might have been my own that held a desperate look. She quickly closed them, forcing her eyes shut as she balled up her hands and held them close to her chest. "I mean, he didn't even tell us why!"
My brows furrowed and my head tilted at that. I wanted to say that was wrong, but I couldn't come to a reason why. As I looked at her, two images flashed across my mind. The first was the sight of her, when Alphonse and I first came back to this world, and she was collapsed on the ground in a frightened and crying heap. The second image was that of Alphonse's tightly clenched fist and the subtle shaking of his armor, as we stood in the room that stored more tortured and imprisoned Pokémon. My eyes widened when they passed, and I looked ahead to the end of this new hallway. Another set of metal doors laid at the end and was marked with a word that took me a moment to recognize; it said "EXIT 01" in bold red.
I turned my head back towards Elina, and my eyes met hers for the second time. This time, there was no worry or concern in my face when I did. Instead my expression bore furrowed brows and a mouth set in a hard line. The young girl's expression shifted in response, turning into something pensive as she stared back at me. Not for the first time, I found myself internally lamenting that humans couldn't understand Pokémon (aside from Alphonse, but that was another case entirely). With her attention on me, I made a point of walking forwards in the direction of the metal doors, then stopped when I was halfway there and made a point of looking back at her. It wasn't the best way to get the message across, but short of actually being able to speak to her I hoped it would do nonetheless.
"What are you…?" Elina started to say as she looked back and forth between me and the door. Pursing her lips and creasing her brow, she quickly walked forward to catch up to where I was sitting. Her attention was once again on me when she caught up with me, and I maintained my own resolved stare. Rubbing her arms, the young girl sighed and looked at the doors that Alphonse said would lead outside before speaking again. "...You trust him, don't you?"
It wasn't quite the message I was trying to get across, but it was in the right direction. While the sudden departure and separation was a shock that still hurt, I knew from Al's words and his earlier behavior what he was intending to do. He was not abandoning us, Ari's words be damned. I gave a single nod to Elina, keeping my resolved expression as I did so.
The young girl only stared back in response, uncertainty written across her face. After a moment, she broke our eye contact to look back at the closed doors of the elevator. Another moment passed before she sighed and turned her attention back to me. "Of course you trust him, he is your trainer after all."
W-what?! I almost blanched at the words she just said to me. It was only a few seconds after that I remembered that she was referring to the cover story that I told Alphonse to go with. Still, to have it be said aloud… I liked Alphonse, but to be his Pokémon, and give up my freedoms? I couldn't fathom the idea; I would sooner consider being back in the oppressive clutches of Sirene than suffer that fate. And yet…
"He's lucky to have you as his Pokémon," Elina continued to say, ignorant of my internal debate. She had a soft smile but a pained look on her face when she said that, and I felt my own heart ache at the pain of loss she seemed to be feeling. Her eyes widened shortly thereafter however, as if realizing something, and she did a double take at the closed elevator. "...The Pokémon. After all the effort he went to save you…when he saw them…Alphonse never intended to leave here, did he?"
"Yes! Exactly!" I shouted back, excited that Elina had come to the same conclusion that I came to. I continued to speak, ignoring the fact that she couldn't understand my speech and hoping she would get the message from the tone of my voice. "That's why we need to trust him and…wait. Even if…I-we would rather not." Because the last time I waited for a friend…
The flash of an image assaulted my mind; the body of a Starly, Arrow's sister, torn to gory pieces, lay rotting on the forest floor as the smug faces of my former clan mates standing proudly nearby flashed in my mind. Before I could shake it, it was replaced by an image I had imagined in fear earlier, that of Alphonse's armored body reduced to lifeless scraps surrounded by humans with faces unknown to me. I tried to shake the intrusive thoughts from my head and focus on the present, but they persisted in the background and I felt my anxiety begin to rise.
It was Elina letting out a long sigh that allowed me to focus on the present situation again, and I noticed that she was holding herself tightly. "So that's it then," she started to say, voice shaking. "We're supposed to wait outside while Al puts himself in danger?"
I turned away, my brows furrowing as I bit the edge of my mouth. "I don't…" I didn't bother to finish, she couldn't understand me anyway. Spoken or not, the words were all the same anyway; I didn't like leaving Alphonse either.
I walked a slow trot over to Elina, intent on guiding her to the door with a gentle push to her legs. Like it or not, we still needed to escape, I reminded myself. I stopped when I was only a few meters away, noticing the girl's arms having fallen to her side with tightly clenched fists. Looking at her face, I saw a stricken expression of closed eyes and creased brows, completed by a strained scowl. I stood there, staring with uncertainty until she opened her eyes once more, and I almost doubled back at intensity of the stare that she held on me.
"I can't do that anymore!" Elina shouted, causing me to actually step back this time, unsure of what the young girl would do. She stepped forward, putting a balled fist to her chest and looking me straight in the eyes. "I'm tired of standing aside as Pokémon and people are taken away before my eyes! There has to be something that I can do!"
I stared for a moment at the young girl, my own eyes now wide from the sudden exclamation, before I was able to recover and a frown of my own formed on my muzzle. I wanted to tell her that it was better to run, but I thought better of it. Without the ability to understand me she wouldn't get the message. Instead I settled for standing up and shaking my head, intent on opposing her. My posture wasn't resolute, however; some part of me wanted to go back and help Alphonse as well.
Elina's expression faltered for a moment at my display but she ultimately maintained it. "I'm going," She said, her voice insistent. "I just...I need to help, somehow. You can come with me or not, but I'm not backing down from this!"
With that, the girl immediately turned around and started to walk briskly back to the elevator. After recovering from my stupor, I ran forward to catch up with her, intending to stop her. Or at least, that's what I would have done, but I was at a loss on how to go about stopping her. Attacking her was out of the question; I could barely stand hurting Pokémon, let alone humans. I wanted to yell at her, to tell her that what she was doing was stupid, that we should trust Alphonse to handle himself, and that it was safer for all of us to just leave. The words were lost on my tongue, held in a mouth left agape on my distraught face.
As I stood mid-stride in the hallway watching Elina pace towards the elevator doors, however, I realized there was another reason I couldn't bring myself to try and stop her. I wanted to go with her. Though our escape was just a few meters away, I didn't want to run away either.
The torn body of a freshly killed Starly once again surfaced in my mind. The anguished cries from the memory of the Pokémon held in captivity touched on the precipice my ears, resounding my unconscious. I knew what I had to do.
I completed my run towards Elina, catching up just before she reached the metal doors of the elevator back down. The young girl failed to notice me, as a result of my padded feet muting any sound my running would have caused. I slowed my pace when I reached her legs, but I was close enough that I could press my head against them to get her attention. She seemed focused on the elevator when I did that, as my action elicited a soft yelp of surprise before she looked down at me with an indignant expression. I met her stare with renewed determination in my own, this time coming from a different place.
"...Are you going to try to stop me?" She eventually said as she watched me carefully, her body tense and rigid. Was she really expecting me to attack her, I wondered? I felt a pang of guilt and frustration at the girl, but set it aside to brush my head against her legs one more time in a reassuring gesture.
"...Then...are you going to help me?" She asked with a softened expression, her voice hopeful. Or perhaps it was pleading; I wasn't able to tell the difference. Whether it was one or the other, I returned a slow nod.
"Well…thank you!" Elina replied, a genuine smile on her face. Immediately afterwards, however, she started to scratch the back of her head and the expression appeared more forced. "Now, uh, do you mind helping me find a way back down? I think Alphonse completely blocked the way when he did that...alchemy stuff earlier."
That was right. Al's use of alchemy completely sealed the doors on the lower level. I wasn't sure how far down the elevator itself could go, but I had a gut feeling that it only went between these two floors. An exhausted sigh escaped me and my head dropped to face the ground, my spirits suddenly demotivated. It was then that I noticed how eager I had been at the prospect of returning to Al and helping Ari find her egg. That was if the Espeon hadn't escaped already; the hallway was awash in the scents of many Pokémon and humans, blending together in a sort of tangled mess that I couldn't pick out her scent from. The only way I would be able to tell or not was if we met outside. Either way, it seemed Elina and I had no choice after all.
As I slowly turned around to face the exit in dejection, I noticed something along the lower walls that made me pause. Creeping closer to it, I noticed it appeared to be a crosshatch of metalworking in the shape of rectangle with four smaller pieces of round metal at each point. Coming out of the grating was a gentle current of air, upon which were scents that I did not detect in the hallway. I tilted my head at it in confusion, trying to work out what it was, when the answer suddenly came to me in a flash similar to the other times I had identified human objects. It was an air vent! Though still perturbed at the sudden knowledge, with it also came the understanding that the "air vent" went to many other places, which explained the air current.
An idea formed in my head as I stared at the vent's metal grating, and a smile crept back onto my face along with it.
Alphonse was slammed right in the torso, a metallic ringing echoing from his hollow body from the impact as he was sent careening down the side of the junction, skipping twice against the tiled floor and sliding even further down on its now wet surface. Before he could climb back up, there was another gruff yell, the voice annoyingly familiar, and once again there was something wreathed entirely in a torrent of water barreling down on him. Acting quickly, the armored Elric brother rolled to the side, just barely avoiding the thing in the water and making it easier to get himself off the floor. He almost slipped again as he put his palms against the ground and pushed up due to sudden addition of a large puddle in the hallway. As he pushed himself up the Elric brother was finally able to see the creature that attacked him, standing opposite of him at its full height. Alphonse, trapped by habit from a body he no longer had, gasped a non-existent breath at the sight of the Pokémon he recognized.
It stood proudly in the hallway at a height just under that of his brother. Orange fur of various shades coated its body, with black spots near the muzzle and tan fur on its belly. While appearing stubby, Alphonse could see strong muscle on its limbs, where he also noticed blue fin-like protrusions. Two fluffy orange tails swished lazily behind the orange Pokémon, and it gave the armored Elric brother a beady glare paired with a fang-toothed sneer as it stood, ready to strike again. Al recognized this beast; it was the exact same one that had attacked him earlier in the forest before he was dragged inside the base.
If Alphonse could have narrowed his eyes, he would have. If that Pokémon was here…
"Well, well, well...would you look at what we have here."
The armored alchemist whirled around to face the voice, one that immediately set him on edge. Sure enough, standing there with greasy bronze hair done in a ponytail and a slime-worthy smile plastered on his face, was Hanson. Alphonse found himself stunned for a fraction of a second; did he just say what he thought he did? He set aside the question for later, shifting his position so as to send an intimidating glare towards the Rocket member. The armored teen remembered him indeed.
It seemed to work for a moment. Hanson stumbled in his approach, gulping nervously at the sight of the alchemist. The man paused, but soon the overconfident sneer was back on his face as he rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger. "I have to say, you have been causing quite a ruckus around here, escaping like you did."
There was a splash behind him, and Alphonse almost cursed when he looked back at the source. It was foolish to turn his back on a hostile. While he didn't relax, he was at least partly relieved to see the Pokémon was only shifting its stance, ready to pounce, but not yet attacking. Keeping them in the corner of his sight, Alphonse turned his helmet to regard Hanson.
"I don't want to fight you," Alphonse started to say; it wasn't untrue, as a fight implied that the other had a chance. "Tell me where your boss is, and how to get them, and I promise I'll let you go." Though not for long, he thought to himself.
Hanson's response was to laugh, and the armored teen didn't fail to catch it's mocking meaning. "You've got a lot of nerve there, freak." Al flinched at the word, fists clenching tightly. "And with those powers of yours I can't say I'm surprised. Unfortunately for you, you're at a disadvantage here."
Al tilted his helmeted head to the side, legitimately confused by the remark. "And why exactly do you think that? Maybe you haven't noticed, but I've completely dismantled every force your group has thrown at me so far."
Hanson closed his eyes and gave an exaggerated nod, keeping his chin held in his palm, and the armored alchemist found it ever more difficult to keep himself from decking the man in the face right then and there. "That's very true. With those weird magic powers of yours, or whatever in Giratina's name they are, not a single grunt that's tried to stop you has been able to stand a chance."
"But." The Rocket goon started with a flash in his eyes and a finger pointed at the Elric brother. "You're kind of a one trick Ponyta, you get me? From what I've been told from the grunts you sent packing, you have to clap your hands and touch the ground or the wall to make use of those freaky powers of yours. Against me and my Floatzel they're completely useless! Even if we let you clap your hands, there's water covering the ground and the walls now, so you can't really get in contact with them. Not completely, anyway." Hanson grandly gesticulated around the hallway as he said that, guiding Al's line of sight to see that he was right; large of puddles of water were everywhere, and the walls were soaked.
That's his advantage? Alphonse had to make a real effort not to laugh at the man's boast. While Hanson wasn't wrong that he had to clap his hands together to form a transmutation circle with himself as the base, and that he had been using the chemical components of the walls and floors as materials, the presence of water was hardly a mitigating factor. If anything, it just opened up further possibilities in the transmutations that he could now perform. He was already imagining mixing the components of the walls and puddles of water now present to form some wet cement and stuffing Hanson up to his head in it. Of course, the overconfident man before him didn't need to know that, so Alphonse decided to play along.
"I'll admit, I'm impressed," the armored alchemist started to say, not actually impressed at all. "Most people aren't able to figure that out. I have to ask, do you really think that will be enough to beat me? It's going to take a lot more than losing my special ability to take me down." Alphonse challenged Hanson, making sure to avoid mentioning alchemy as he did so. If the man was going to continue boasting his strategy, the Elric brother was more than happy to oblige him to continue.
"Now see, that is where you're wrong, freak." Alphonse narrowed his glare at the Team Rocket man at the piercing jab, now much less interested in hearing what he had to say. Hanson continued anyway. "Without those magic powers of yours, you're nothing more than a suit of armor. That alone would throw the fight in my favor, but I've got a trump card that guarantees my victory."
His desire to walk over and beat the man into a bloody pulp had only grown stronger, and if he was his brother then he most certainly would have done so by now. Certainly, Alphonse wasn't particularly inclined to keep listening to the disrespectful man, but that last comment made him pause. Did the man know something that he didn't? Then the armored alchemist recalled the attempted interrogation earlier that day, where Hanson had brushed his soul-binding seal, and he felt the first creepings of worry. He remained silent, letting the man continue.
"You see, after you went and collapsed during our little one-on-one, I got to thinking about why that happened. You want to know what I came up with?" Hanson asked, a truly vile expression on his face. Alphonse felt his soul freeze up ever so slightly, his fears seeming more likely to be confirmed by the second. "I think that little circle inside your armor is what makes you tick. And if anything happens to it, you're a goner. Something like getting hit by a blast of water, for example?"
Whatever cold rage that Alphonse had felt build within himself dissipated at that moment, instead replaced with a frigid dread. That complicated his original plans of a straightforward approach; so long as Hanson knew about that weak spot, and had the means to exploit it, then he was a more serious threat than the Elric brother would have liked to admit. There was the sound of another splash behind him and Al glanced backwards, confirming that the Pokémon, a Floatzel apparently, had moved again. He had no doubt it was gearing up for some sort of attack. Alphonse almost swore at the occurrence, doing his best to keep his cool while keeping his glare leveled at the man before him. The armored alchemist made sure not to let the Sea Weasel Pokémon leave his peripheral vision as he stood there, positioned and ready to make a counter strike if necessary. It was more than likely that this creature was how Hanson planned to target his weakness, the armored teen thought to himself. Based on how it had wrapped itself in water when it attacked him-an ability that Alphonse had many questions about, but decided to consider later-it was certainly capable of blasting the inside of his armor and at his seal if he let it have the opportunity. I'm going to need a plan if I want to get out of this alive and on top, the young alchemist thought to himself, resigning himself to making sure such an opportunity would never come.
"Heh, judging by your silence I must have hit the nail on the head, didn't I?" Hanson chuckled, interrupting Alphonse from his momentary strategizing. The man gave another slimy grin at the armored teen before he continued speaking again, arms spread halfway outwards in what was probably an attempt to make himself look bigger than he actually was. "Clearly you don't want that to happen, so how about this: you come back to us quietly and we can forget this whole mess ever happened to begin with. We'll even let that girl and her Pokémon go scott free to boot. Sounds like a good deal, right?"
Alphonse would have raised an eyebrow at that if he could. Instead, he settled for tilting his helmet, the glowing orbs inside narrowing as he stared down the Team Rocket member. "Are you telling the truth?" He asked with an incredulous tone, immediately suspicious of the man's intentions. Still, for Hanson to make the offer in the first place… "After breaking out a bunch of your hostages and wrecking this place, your gang is really willing to take me back without any sort of punishment?"
"That's about right." Hanson replied back, scratching the back of his head with his eyes closed. When he opened them again, Alphonse was fixated with a glare by his beady black eyes, a dreadful scowl drawn across his face. "Though if it were my call, we'd be scrapping you for parts right here and now. After a good and thorough scrubbing of course. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for you, Aeros would have my head if that happened. So standing orders are to bring you in alive, and preferably not kicking and screaming." He finished with a sigh, his posture slumping.
Alphonse silently considered the words, turning them over in his head and comparing them to Hanson's previous ones. A realization struck the young alchemist, and he tilted his helmet as he stared at the man. "So, I guess that means you actually can't attack my seal then. Doesn't that take away one of your advantages?" He asked, making sure to add an especially aggravating polite confusion into his tone.
Hanson stared blankly at the Elric brother for a solid minute before his scowl deepened and his eyes widened manically. He pointed an angry finger in his direction and shouted: "You shut up! So what if I can't use that as an advantage?! You still can't use that weird magic crap and if you try to fight me you'll put yourself at risk! So there!"
Alphonse could only scratch the the back of his helmeted head in response. A quick glance back and he saw that the Floatzel had a similar expression to the one that he would have had if his metal face allowed it. An exasperated sigh reverberated in his armor. "Geez, you really aren't that good at this, are you sir?"
Hanson's right eye twitched at the comment. "And what is that supposed to mean?" He asked through gnashing teeth.
"Well, if I'm being honest, you've been coming off as a bit cliche. And your advantages don't really make sense if you think about them…" Alphonse sighed and clapped his hands together. "Although, maybe it would be better if I just showed you."
There was an immediate change in Hanson the instant that action was completed. Gone was the red-faced anger at Al's mocking, replaced instead by eyes narrowed in alert and a steady-set scowl. "Oh no you don't!" He shouted, shifting his pointed finger over to the Floatzel behind him, whose own posture had also tensed up. "Waterfall, NOW!"
The Sea Weasel Pokémon wasted no time in obeying the spoken command, and Alphonse was stunned again to see its water powers in action. In a fraction of a second it sprayed a jet of water on itself, and by twisting its body and waving its arms around itself, it wrapped the liquid around its body in a watery twister. The armored alchemist would have called the sight impossible had he not seen it, and been hit by it, before. He pushed all thoughts and wonderings about the creature and how it worked to the back of his mind before they could fully develop, as the Pokémon was now barreling towards him down the hallway. While it was not moving nearly as fast as it had been before, Alphonse still had difficulty evading the attack as he tried to spin his body to side to avoid the beast. He wasn't quite fast enough however, and was hit in the shoulder by the attack, causing him to slam against the wall.
The orange Pokémon didn't stop there with its attack. Carried forward by its momentum, it landed against the right wall of the hallway and bounced off to strike the ground in between the young alchemist and Hanson. Alphonse was just getting himself off the wall when the bronze-haired man barked out another order, and the Pokémon was charging at him once again in a wreath of rapid water. With the minor advantage of seeing the attack coming, the armored alchemist once again tried to step out of the way to dodge the attack. The sea weasel passed right by him, centimeters from the top of his armored torso and his helmeted head, utterly soaking the outside of his armor. Alphonse took a small step back to get into a proper fighting stance and almost fell to the floor again when his metal foot slid across the now flooded floor. Al briefly glared at the floor as regained his balance, instead turning it towards to the Pokémon that had come to a stop in an attack-ready stance.
"Like I said earlier, freak, we're not going to let you use that weird magic of yours." Alphonse didn't need to turn around to know that it was Hanson, voice in a mocking tone, who had said that. The pointed insult nearly made him flinch but he was able to restrain himself, just barely setting aside the urge to turn around and beat the man bloody.
Al maintained his stance and studied the Floatzel carefully, waiting for it to make the next move. It too maintained its own stance, an expression on its muzzle that the armored alchemist could only describe as a confident sneer; he suspected it matched Hanson's own face. Loathing as much as he was to admit it, perhaps there was something to Hanson's argument about his advantages after all, Alphonse thought to himself. Between the enclosed space, the soaked floor, and the Pokémon's attacking speed, the battle was not so nearly stacked in his favor. It was lucky for Alphonse that… I already know how to win this fight!
Al clapped his hands together, a simple transmutation in mind, and once again there was a flurry of motion as Hanson immediately barked out another order that the Floatzel was already acting upon. A veil of rapid water once again enveloped the Pokémon, and it immediately propelled itself towards the armored alchemist. Alphonse expected this however, and used his arms to form a ring with his torso. The Sea Weasel Pokémon practically flew right through the opening, but not before Alphonse touched his palms to the rapid water that surrounded it.
The alchemic reaction was immediate; there was a quick flash of lightning and blinding blue light, followed by the trademark reverberating ring of a successful transmutation. Though short and sudden, it was satisfying nonetheless, even in its simplicity. The molecules of the water surrounding the Pokémon were suddenly charged and heated, and a blast of steam rapidly consumed the hallway in a thick cloud of hot moisture.
"W-what!?" Came the loud cry from Hanson, his voice shaking and panicked. "That's impossible! You can only do that magic to the walls, right!? It's not supposed to work with-"
"I don't recall saying anything about what I can and can't do," Alphonse called out within the cloud, his voice echoing throughout himself and the hallway. Hanson and the Floatzel whirled about, trying and failing to find the source of his voice in the heavy steam. "It's your own fault for jumping to conclusions; that's a really reckless thing to do."
"Don't you fucking dare lecture me!" Hanson shouted back, his face red and his brows creased together. "Come out and fight me like a real man! Ha! That's right, you aren't one. Keep hiding like the freak you are then!"
"I'm not hiding anywhere!" Alphonse shouted indignantly from the bowels of the steam cloud. The rapid sounds of metal plates clattering against the tiled floor rang out, reverberating in the obscured hallway. At the same time, there was a resounding clap followed soon after by the sounds of an alchemical transmutation. The dancing lightning and bright flash of blue light that resulted from it, though only briefly, illuminated the silhouette of Alphonse Elric's armored body.
"There you are! Attack it now, Floatzel!" Hanson shrieked, pointing a commanding finger at the armored shape.
The Pokémon wasted no time following the command. Wrapped in a cloak of rapid water yet again, with a sharp and manic expression on their face, the sea weasel took off down the hallway. It shot straight forward like a living bullet, aimed directly at Alphonse's armor chest and poised to strike with massive force. It was unfortunate for the Floatzel that it did not come to pass.
The sea weasel did not smash into Al's armored torso as it expected to once it reached his shape in the cloud of dense steam. Instead, the Floatzel slammed head first into a concrete copy of the armored alchemist, jutting out from a wall made of the same material. There was a sickening crack as its skull met hard stone, the only consolation for its injury being a few pieces of debris coming free of the copy where it rammed into. It fell to the ground shortly thereafter, lacking any of the fight that it had earlier, and lay there in an unconscious state. Blood slowly began to drip from a wound on its head, where it had made contact with the concrete statue.
"Wh-what!? It was a decoy!?" Hanson managed to breath out, balking at the sight with his mouth agape and brows raised high on his head, almost reaching his hairline. The Team Rocket member took two unsteady steps back, before whipping his body back and forth, eyes darting wildly in search of the armored teen.
He didn't have to wait long. The rhythmic clanking of metal plates in motion once again rang out in the steam cloud, and before he could even properly react Hanson was face to faceplate with the Elric brother. Hanson tried to step back, away from the suit of armor bearing down upon him, but Alphonse had already gained the distance between the two; there was no running to be done. With a mighty swing, the armored alchemist planted a brutal punch straight into Hanson's stomach, launching him into the wall of the hallway, gasping for air from his gaping jaw.
He crashed into the hard surface, the back of his head smacking against the hard concrete, and collapsed onto the tiled floor in a heap. Alphonse walked slowly towards him, metal feet clanking against the ground and kicking up small splashes of water with every step. Hanson struggled to get up, barely raising himself to all fours before he started to gag and vomit. Al briefly paused at the sight, and stood watching as the Team Rocket member collected himself. By the time he was standing, and glaring, the steam cloud had long since dissipated. Hanson was cradling his stomach as he stood up; Alphonse stared him down, metal arms against his hips. The Elric brother might have felt sorry for the injury he inflicted, but he was well past extending any sort of sympathy to the man and the group he represented. Instead, Al did what came naturally with his current body and leveled a cold, unflinching glare straight into the man's stony eyes.
"Y-you, f-freak. Don't think...that you've….b-beaten me…yet..." Hanson said through rasping breaths, coughing in between each breath. Still cradling his stomach, the black clothed man reached for his belt with his free arm and grabbed a small red and white orb. Alphonse almost missed the action as the limb was obscured somewhat by the other one bracing his abdomen. He didn't miss the "click" sound that came from it, however, nor the sight of it enlarging in his hand as he raised it above his head. A grin crept over Hanson's strained visage. "I've still…got Pokémon...to fight-"
Alphonse did not let him finish his pained sentence. He shot his hand out, and with the impressive arm reach granted by his armor, easily clasped Hanson's in his own. The cry of pain he heard from the man indicated that he used more force than he intended when he grabbed the hand holding the ball. Well, it wasn't as if the man didn't deserve it, Alphonse thought to himself. Still crushing the appendage in his own, the young Alchemist lowered his gaze to peer directly into the beady orbs that were Hanson's eyes. The young alchemist felt no small sense of satisfaction at the fear that graced the man's face.
"I'm done being patient with you people," Alphonse said, voice low, even, and with small traces of the cold fury that he felt within. "Tell me where to find your boss, and don't lie. Believe it or not, I can get angrier than this."
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Her finger tapped the hard laminated wood of the desk incessantly, without beat or rhythm. Only a monotonous string of tapping by her forefinger, with each strike of the nail digging deeper into the plywood. As a sign of her rapidly boiling frustration there was an intimidating quality to it all on its own, and every other impact against the wooden surface brought the subtlest of twitching to her lower left eyelid that only added to her intimidating visage. Seconds passed as the scene went on, but for the two Team Rocket grunts bearing the brunt of her gaze, they stretched into minutes. Eventually, Aeros let out a strained sigh and addressed the two cowering men.
"So, if I remember correctly," The Team Rocket admin started to say through strained teeth, the tapping of her finger coming to a pause as she spoke. "On top of the armored boy escaping his imprisonment, he has also freed the girl that was brought with him and some of their Pokémon using powers unseen before. Powers that can shape stone and metal as if they were wet clay. And not only has he used these powers to free himself and some others, but he's also been defeating just about every grunt that's been sent his way."
"And if that wasn't bad enough…" Aeros suddenly stood upward, her ponytail whipping about like an angry Tauros ready to charge. She fixated a stare at the two grunts trying and failing to withdraw from her gaze, her green eyes molten and searing. "The both of you are now telling me that Lance, the Dragon champion of Kanto, who personally led the dismantling of our Johto operations, is here at the same time?!"
The larger man whimpered, the bulging muscles exposed by his sleeveless shirt looking more like flabby balloons as he brought them close to his chest in a feeble attempt to defend himself from her boiling wrath. His blond companion shrunk behind him, trying to use his larger ally as a makeshift shield. Neither attempt worked, and Aeros was distinctly unimpressed with the display. Her finger started tapping (digging) into the desk once more.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Well?" Aeros hissed out, no longer tolerating her impatience with two before her.
"Th-that's right, b-b-boss!" The blond-haired grunt managed to stutter out from behind his quivering human shield. "We s-saw him with our own eyes! We tried to fight him y-you see, and we put up a good fight too! B-but he is the Dragon champion, y'know, so we uhh…"
Aeros' lower left eyelid stopped twitching, but her right eyelid picked up the slack immediately afterwards. The Rocket admin walked around her desk, pacing as she considered the information. The two grunts continued to back away towards the exit of the office, but she was already well aware of their pathetic attempt at stealth. She ignored them all the same, staring instead at a map of the base plastered on the wall. The tapping of her forefinger was soon joined by the rest of the digits on her hand as she stared at it. The sound of each finger impacting against the wooden top of the desk was all that could be heard for a few moments, before Aeros eventually let out an exasperated sigh and brought the hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"Well damnit, that changes things now doesn't it?" The Rocket Admin eventually said, bringing her hand back down to the desk to lean against it. "If it was just the armored boy, as problematic as he's turned out to be, there was a strong possibility we could have ambushed and overwhelmed him. With Lance throwing his uninvited ass into this, however…"
"So, uh, you're not, um, not mad at us?" The brute of a grunt managed to choke out, reminding her of their presence. He winced at the icy gaze she threw at the pair.
Another sigh escaped her lips. "I'm not mad that the two of you couldn't stop him. I doubt any of the grunts here are equipped with any Pokémon that can actually handle him. The only thing I'm angry at is that the two of you look like you're going to wet the floor any minute now. Seriously, get a hold of yourselves already, I feel embarrassed by proxy."
"R-right boss!" The brutish man barked out, quickly standing to attention as his companion stepped out to do the same. Though they stood straighter now, Aeros could still make out the subtle shaking of their forms and had to force herself to keep from sighing yet again.
The grunt with the unkempt blond hair sticking out of his cap took a tepid step forward. "So, uh, boss, what do we do now?" He asked, a certain shakiness still present in his voice. Aeros had to refrain from palming her face.
Still, that is a good question, she thought to herself. Turning her attention back to the map of the base, intending to use it as an invisible pinboard to organize her thoughts, she briefly considered sticking to the original plan of response. It was immediately discarded with a scowl, however, considering its inevitable demise. While it initially seemed possible to overwhelm Alphonse and use the girl as a hostage, as she had intended by sending Hanson out to intervene, Lance's presence made the shaky plan all the more unstable and unreliable. Of course, knowing the Rocket subadmin, Aeros wouldn't be surprised if he had already managed to botch his job somehow. Then again, his only real value was as a distraction for the rest of the grunts to regroup. If she decided to stick with the original plan, she would have to split them to handle both the armored boy and the champion, which would almost certainly be doomed to fail.
But what were the alternatives, she wondered? She rubbed her chin between her forefinger and thumb. She couldn't speak for the armored boy, who had been nothing but one surprise after the other, but she expected that Lance had certain assumptions about his endeavor. She had done her own research into the other facilities that Team Rocket had controlled and were subsequently raided; more often than not, the raiders would fight their way through hordes of unprepared grunts to the leader. Aeros understood giving grunts the bare minimum to maximize the profits earned by selling Pokémon, but those incidents were classic cases where it had backfired. Now the same was poised to happen again, just as they were starting in Sinnoh.
The unfortunate answer was clear to the Rocket admin, however much she detested admitting it to herself. It's time to cut our losses, she thought to herself with resignation. Aeros turned once more to the two Rocket grunts standing at attention. While the fear they had earlier exuded unconsciously through their body language had dissipated, there was still a nervous attitude about them. Aeros had to fight the urge to roll her eyes (beggars can't be choosers).
Aeros addressed the two grunts. "You two, what are your names?"
The two grunts blinked at her question, standing still as if processing the question before the blonde stepped forward to actually answer. "I'm Valimond, and this here is Bo. You, uh, do remember hiring us right? We joined a few weeks ago?"
"I remember." She didn't, in fact she would probably forget them again as soon as everything was said and done. "Well, congratulations are in order for the two of you. You've just been promoted to Sub-Executives. And your first orders as Sub-Executives are to regroup with the rest of the grunts and execute protocol sixteen. This base has been compromised."
They stood there, still as statues, gaping like fish. Aeros felt her left eye threaten to start twitching again, minor regret beginning to seep in as she stared at the two grunts. "Well? Don't tell me giving you two that promotion was a mistake."
That got the two men to hastily recollect themselves, giving a sloppy salute before making their way over to the exit of her office. Aeros felt her eye twitching again when the two idiots tried to leave through the door at the same time and almost got stuck against each other in the frame. The shorter, skinnier one managed to squeeze out first and his brutish companion followed quickly after. Promoting the two men would definitely be a mistake she would regret for the rest of her life, which was why it was a good thing there was no such thing as a "Sub-Executive." Of course, they don't need to know that, she thought to herself.
Her forefinger started tapping into the desk again, but this time it lacked the power that allowed it to dig into the surface prior. There was also no twitch of the eye, despite the situation still remaining a complete frustration for her. Her thoughts had diverted to another topic, the hurricane-like rage she had barely contained now distilled into a cold sharpness as she considered her options. She would not act as so many other elites of Team Rocket had acted in the past, of that she was resolved. Of course, letting the armored boy and the dragon champion wander about the base practically unimpeded wasn't an option she could abide by either.
As her finger kept on tapping, Aeros' eyes absentmindedly scanned over the surface of the desk, and eventually settled on a long pair of gloves near the edge. Staring at it for a few moments, an idea hit upon the Team Rocket Boss, and she glanced back at the door where Valirand and Bob (were those their names?) had left through. Turning around again, a small smile crept on her face as she circled the desk, approaching the gloves. Her hands appeared to reach for them, but then dropped lower to a drawer just beneath the desk where the accessories lay. She pulled it outwards, revealing the red and white shapes of Poké Balls, and another circular device with a button and a grip built into it. Retrieving the objects, she put the circular device into a pocket and fastened the balls to the belt on her waist. An exhale of breath escaped Aeros as she closed the drawer with a soft click. Grabbing the gloves, she felt tempted to draw out the process of slipping them on, but decided against it. Time was short for the Rocket Boss; she had guests to entertain.
"If Lance is expecting a fight, and the armored boy is looking for one…" Aeros started to say, briskly walking towards the door and out of her secluded office. "Then I better not waste any more time."
Though one battle has resolved, yet more still lurk around the corner. The further they delve back down, the closer the light gets to the truth.
Next Time: Small Shocks
Will you be satisfied with what you find?