Oh man, I've come down to just once a week. I mean, I guess that's fine, cause I'm writing this mostly for my own purposes!
Arc I, The Plate of Space
Chapter Eight:
Into the Land of Giants
Aurelio and I glanced at one another, my expression guilty and his absolutely befuddled.
"Who was that?" he asked. He looked beyond me, towards the directions Latios had sprinted off. "The guy with the blue hair."
"Latios," I replied, paying no attention his incredulous reaction or his, "Wait, what—" I could hear footsteps on the top of the carriage above my head. Whoever, or whatever, had caused the disruption in the train, I had to find out. Latios was an expert at human interaction. If he thought that this was a true emergency, then so it was. "I'm going to turn the Alterstone. I am much too conspicuous in this form."
Aurelio shakily nodded his head. "Alright, then," he said, swallowing. He clutched his notebook to his chest, then he looked down the aisles of the train. "Everyone is looking away. Do it now."
I turned the Alterstone over to the green side, becoming a Sentret. I scurried onto the seats and listened carefully. I could hear steps — belonging to a human, definitely — and Latios' more floaty footfalls following not far behind. My ears twitched as I paid them attention. They had come to a full stop directly above my head. And then I heard them talking, although I could hardly make out their words.
The train began to move again.
It had not stopped working. Someone had stopped it to get our attention — Latios' in particular, I thought.
Heart beating, and making sure that nobody was looking, I leapt from the seat and transformed in mid-air. My human legs hit the floor, and I took off running in the opposite direction of the crowd, yelling back to Aurelio, "I'm going to go find Latios!" He did little to protest, but I did think that I heard him saying, "Come back safely," although that could have been my imagination.
I yanked open the carriage door, the wind desperately pulling at my hair and clothes. The train wheels rattled below me, spitting out rocks and dust as we travelled. I looked down, clutching to the railing, knowing for certain that I would not be hurt but also fearing the possibility of falling. When I had shut the door behind me, I flipped the Alterstone once more, becoming a Sentret.
As I climbed the steel ladder that led onto the top of the carriage, I stared out into the desert, the reflection of the sun on the dunes blinding me. My paws gripped the ladder tighter. I kept going.
When I reached the top, I saw Latios' back to me. His blue hair was flying around his head. He stood with his legs shoulder-width apart, grounding him to the top of the train, and I could see that his fists were clenched, his shoulders were back, and his chin was square and lifted. I wanted to call out for him, but my voice was nothing more than a quiet purr amongst the roaring engines.
He was ready for a battle, I realized.
And beyond him, I saw a man, built like a Taurus. He was entirely relaxed. With his backside to the wind, his light brown coat swept around his body like a cape. He wore a black hat tipped over his eyes. When I angled my body further, I saw that his neck, which molded into his shoulders like massive, square bricks, held a grinning white scar. It travelled from one side of his throat to the other, curved upward like a second smile, and the scar tissue there was pale and glazed in comparison to his brown skin.
"Who are you?" asked Latios, the tone of his voice being unlike I had ever heard before.
"I was in town," said the dangerous man with no hesitation, as if he had prepared his answer beforehand. He was smiling, his white teeth outshining the scar on his throat. "Was following some leads on the legendaries, grabbed a few drinks, and then…" The smooth, sleepy lull in his voice terrified me. "...imagine this — how funny — I look up and see you."
"I am nobody," said Latios. Fear edged his voice.
The man's grin grew wider. "You look just like your sister."
Latios bristled, and I did too. "Have you done anything to her?"
"Oh, no, she's more flighty than you," said the man, adjusting his hat, "and probably wiser because of it. Listen, Latios, all I want is some...information, I guess you could call it. The legendaries are an interesting bunch, and the Antebureau specializes in anything and everything interesting. So what do you say — let's have a talk, yeah?"
"I don't deal with the Antebureau," said Latios tightly. He sounded as if he would burst. "May I remind you of the incident with the electric net ten years ago?"
The man laughed, a booming, rumbling sound that shook me. He scratched the black whiskers on his face, rubbing his hand along his chin as he beheld Latios from head to toe. "You legendaries are good with your grudges," he said. "That was me, too, don't you remember—"
"Oh, I remember."
"—Only I didn't have this scar, and I was not nearly as heavy," he continued. He chuckled pleasantly. "I know how these situations go. You can escape at any moment. I don't have a team here with me, and even worse, nothing I can use to catch you. And that's just my luck, because I was not expecting you to be travelling with another familiar face."
My blood soured, turning ice cold. My Alterstone was not in view. How could he have known?
Then suddenly, I recalled the note that had been left on Aurelio's door.
One-thousand arms.
"Who are you talking about?" said Latios, faltering.
"Now, I thought our relationship was better than that! We shouldn't play dumb with each other." The man's eyes lazily wandered to me, where I clung to the steel ladder on the train, bracing myself against the wind. "I was expecting this day to go quite normally, really — y'know, I'd wake up, have my coffee, get on the train back to the city, chatty-chat with Latios, call it a day. And instead, I run into the god of gods, the true legend, the one-thousand limbed creature: The Original One."
My name washed over me like waves upon a shore. It pleased me, but I was also afraid. I felt surrounded by the calmness of water, drowning still in the sea.
"Lovely to meet your acquaintance," finished the man.
I finished climbing the ladder and turned over the Alterstone as I furiously walked to Latios' side. For three moments, I saw my white hair obstructing my vision, but then I realized that it was not my hair I was seeing — it was my dazed fury. Latios attempted to keep me quiet, but I barred him with my arm. "You saw me in the bazaar," I stated. There was little point in pretending to be someone else now. "You left that note too. How did you know?"
"I know more than the average person. I would even give myself more credit than the Solomon family."
Aurelio's family, perhaps. Aurelio Solomon.
"How I'd love to catch both of you," said the man with a sense of finality. "But the stars have not aligned. This moment was not wasted, however. Actually, I'd say we've made a lot of progress, don't you think?"
"Leave," I said, my voice steadying, "human."
"I'll gladly take a command from the Original One," laughed the man.
Just then, the train passed beneath a tunnel, and our company was plunged into darkness. A cold wind swept over us, bringing the musty stench of forgotten passages untouched by sunshine. Someone's breath warmed the skin on my neck, and I heard someone whisper, "I know what is hidden behind the visage of the Alterstone...we'll be together again soon," as a ghostly presence came and went. The hair on my arms stood up.
By the time my human eyes had adjusted to the darkness, Latios and I were already in the warmth of daylight again. I shielded myself from the sun, squinting. We stood by ourselves, our mouths tense. Along the horizon, I saw the mountains of a cityscape, its highest towers breaching the clouds.
"What is the Antebureau?" I finally asked.
Latios fidgeted closer to me. "In that city along the hills," he replied.
"They've tried to catch you in the past?"
"Both me and sister," said Latios. "They have never been successful, though. Latias and I tend to be more flightfooted than the others. We are better at recognizing threats which we cannot face alone. Here in the mortal realm, legendaries are caught once in awhile, but they always escape. Nobody ever speaks of what they encountered within the trap of the Antebureau. I knew you were headed this way, so I kept close."
I ran my fingers along the Alterstone. "Hidden behind its visage," I muttered.
We stood in silence as the steel titans of industrialization moved upon us. All at once, I was reminded of Latios' words to me before I had left my dimension: that humans were the masters of deception, despite their lack of magical disguises and false palaces. As the towers of the city stood high above my head, I peered into the sky, watching the clouds weave around the top floors and feeling like I was a young child walking through the gates into the land of giants.
End of Chapter Eight