route_1065 | You were my best friend

Entry tags:

You were my best friend

Who: Alphonse Elric and Wrath
Where: Ilex Forest
When: Monday, June 1st
Summary: Old walls are finally crumbling down
Rating: PG
Log:

Alphonse felt oddly groggy when he woke up that morning, curled up in the roots of a massive tree in a forest...somewhere. He's definitely far off the designated trails, but some kind twist of fate left Al a pack of supplies and an old red coat, though if it's Ed's old one or Al's later copy he can't tell. The sight of the weather-beaten garment leaves an ache in his chest, but it can't be helped.

Apparently some wishes just can't be granted.

Al stands and stretches out the kinks in his back, sighing and pulling out a Pokeball from his belt. "Alright, Clara, time to go find our way back to Olivi--"

...that isn't Clara.

A few text messages and several hours later finds Al hiking through the woods trying to find his way onto an actual trail. He's resigned himself to a few days worth of rough living, but he's starting to wonder if he's found the one stretch of actual hard terrain that exists in Johto. He's seen nothing but Pokemon and trees, and usually there's at least a few other trainers hiking along the routes. He can't be that far off the beaten path, can he?

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Guess who had enjoyed having his powers back and running around like a little hellion all weekend?

THIS KID.

Guess who woke up in a tree, powerless, and not even remotely dressed for a hike through the woods?

ALSO THIS KID.

Wrath has scattered memories of the various acts of mischief he'd gotten up to over the past few days, but none whatsoever of how he wound up in the middle of the WOODS. And to top it all off, the only woods he'd been in proper before had been Yock Island-- a place where he could find the beach within twenty minutes by picking a direction and just walking.

But he's been walking for a lot longer than that, and there's no end to the trees in sight.

Not to mention the fact that his feet no longer insta-heal from every thorn or sharp rock he steps on.

Of course, this forest has plenty of other wild shaggy things running around in it besides just him, and before too long, the ex-Homunculus finds himself looking over his shoulder anxiously every time a twig snaps or bush rustles. The last time he was exploring vegetation this dark and thick, it had not gone well. And the creatures in this place might well be just as dangerous as the plant-based chimeras that had once nearly spelled the end of him and Envy.

This thought is what triggers Wrath to start RUNNING, and before too much longer he's probably making more noise than any of the Pokemon around, crashing through the brush and sending flocks of smaller Pokemon startling from their hiding places.

It's not until the dense forest opens up into something resembling a path that he stops, practically exploding out of the bushes and stumbling to turn around and stare back the way he'd come, sure that he'd find SOME kind of monster barreling after him. But there isn't-- and he with his wild eyes and hair full of sticks and ENORMOUSLY IMPRACTICAL CROPPED SHIRT is probably the most monstery-looking thing in sight.

Oh, and he happened to pop out maybe ten feet in front of Al.

SURPRISE.

Obviously Al had heard Wrath coming well ahead of him actually arriving. It would be hard not to, with the ruckus he was raising crashing through the foliage like that. He has Lisa's Pokeball at the ready, in case the Typhlosion is needed to fend off whatever is coming towards him...

But the dramatic lead-up ends with a comedic fart rather than a blare of trumpets. Al lets out the biggest sigh of relief in his life when Wrath is the one to burst out of the bushes. God bless, he will take this tiny brat over a rampaging Pokemon any day.

...granted, this doesn't mean there isn't still a stampede on the way. Wrath is a confident little kid, he wouldn't run away from nothing, right? "Wrath? What's wrong, what happened?"

Over the course of the weekend, Wrath might as WELL have been a rampaging Pokemon, but 'comedic fart' is definitely a valid sound effect for HUMAN Wrath popping out instead of some slavering, rabid Bouffalant, or something.

Still breathing raggedly, he whips around at the sound of Al's voice.

And, as the older boy probably expected, promptly GLARES.

"YOU! What are YOU doing here! This is YOUR fault, isn't it?!"

He sighs and shakes his head--yup, about what he expected, really. "Of course not, why would I want to drag you out here? I don't even know how I got stuck here."

He tugs his new-but-not-new coat a little closer around himself and puts the Pokeball back onto his belt. "Are you hurt? You look like you ran right into half the trees already."

Puffing like an agitated cat, Wrath backs up as though Al had actually been approaching him instead of just expressing general concern for his wellbeing.

"NO! No, I'm NOT!"

Except that his legs are covered in angry red scratches and his feet are no better.

Obviously if he denies them hard enough, they will become invisible.

"Stay away!"

Al frowns and crosses his arms. Even if it's a reaction he expects, it still hurts. "Wrath, you know I'm not going to hurt you. We're both lost, and working together will get us out of here and back to a city a lot faster than working on our own will."

Well, faster for Wrath, if we're being honest here.

"You don't want to be in the woods any longer than you have to, right?"

Face reddening, Wrath balls his fists.

"YOU might be lost, but I'M not! I know EXACTLY where I'm going! And YOU can't come WITH ME!"

And after that little yell-your-brains-out session, he spins on his heel and takes off, back into the vegetation.

...he really, really should have expected that.

Al watches the mini-fit with raises eyebrows, and shakes his head before following after Wrath at a decent distance. He's not going to crowd the kid, but he also isn't going to let him get even more lost and probably hurt.

He really should have.

Even as a human, Wrath is fast-- the first terrain he ever navigated was woodlands barren of civilization, and he hasn't forgotten those first, confusing days spent learning how to exist.

Alphonse will quickly find the ex-Homunculus out-pacing him, visible only in flashes of black hair and pale skin through the foliage... and then he crashes through a bush and all sounds of his flight promptly cease.

There is nothing but silence-- well, the forest version of silence, which is lots of rustles and chirps, but... still.

Al frowns a bit and picks up his pace, but Wrath is a determined little kid. He winds his way around the foliage and picks his way through clumps of roots, and Wrath gets further and further ahead. And when that noise up ahead stops so suddenly, Al gets very, very nervous.

He forgoes caution and runs forward, ignoring the branches catching on his clothes and scratching up his arms. "Wrath? Wrath!"

The foliage parts in Al's path like the Red Sea, so determinedly is he running!

... And then the, uh, ground parts too.

As soon as Al bursts through the bush, he'll see why Wrath apparently stopped running. Because the earth suddenly sloped downwards into a considerably-sized ditch, lined from floor to rim with thick, slick vines. Which Wrath is lying face-down in, temporarily stunned by the spill he took.

It's hard to blame either of them for not looking where they were stepping-- the entire circumference of the pit is well-camouflaged by bushes and trees, so really only birds would have seen it coming.

"... Ow."

Al skids just barely to a stop, actually toppling backwards onto his rear to avoid falling in as well. He craws over and looks down, and is relieved to see Wrath is relatively unharmed.

The ditch isn't too deep, but the sides are pretty steep. Maybe that Steelix of his can help bet Wrath out of there, rather than Al having to climb down and get them both back up. "Wrath, are you okay? Stay still, I'll get you out of there."

Growling low in his throat, Wrath peels his face from the thick, woven floor of the ditch and starts to struggle upright.

"I don't NEED your help!!"

He can climb! He can climb RIGHT out of here!

With a pitter-patter of bare feet across plant matter, he makes for the other side of the ditch-- until a deep rumble shakes the earth, and he stops.

D: WHAT WAS THAT.

SIIIIGH. Wrath, you are lucky Al has the patience of a saint. "It's too steep, you'll hurt yourself."

He's already reaching for the Steelix's pokeball when he feels that rumble and freezes, casting an uneasy glance down into the ditch. What...was that...

The vines vibrate again as another rumble ripples through the pit and the surrounding woods.

And then they start to move.

A pit within a pit opens up as swathes of them part, slithering to the sides. And deep within the shadows... a pair of giant eyes blink open. And then flick downwards, their inky black pupils settling on the tiny semi-feral human standing frozen in horror at the edge of the ditch.

".... aaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

The spell broken, Wrath turns tail and starts to FRANTICALLY SCRAMBLE back towards where he originally fell through the bushes.

Al watches in horrified fascination as the vines shift and move, the actual form of the Pokemon (must be a grass type, but which one, how is it so big?) becoming apparent. After a few seconds he scrambles for Lisa's pokeball; whatever it is, it can't be happy at being woken up like this, and Wrath is right in the thing's path!

He throws the ball in the air and a Typhlosion leaps out and lands between Wrath and his personal nightmare, roaring in challenge. U WANNA GO, BRO??? HUH??????

At the same time, Al whips off his coat and runs over to where Wrath is clawing his way back up the slope. He holds it by the hood and swings the rest down to Wrath in lieu of a rope, lying flat on the ground so it can hopefully reach down do him. "Grab on, I'll pull you up!"

Wrath stops only briefly to gape at the big blazing bearweasel as it roars-- then he grabs the coat. He may hate Alphonse, he may be loathe to accept the other boy's help in any form... but he's not stupid. He doesn't want to die.

"WE NEED TO GO! WE NEED TO GO!!"

Behind him, the behemoth rises.

The veritable mountain of vines comes free of the earth with a cacophony of dirt-clods pattering downwards and snapping of tendrils that were rooted too deep.

It's the great grandaddy of all Tangrowths.

And it's about seven times the size of Lisa.

One giant arm the length and width of a redwood tree lifts into the air.

Lisa snarls and flares her fire up even further, not backing off an inch.

Ah, good! A fair fight.

Alphonse hauls Wrath up with a strength he didn't know he had, fear lending speed as he hauls the boy up. He doesn't let Wrath down, instead carrying him as he runs out of the way of that giant arm's descent.

"Lisa, Protect!"

A sparkling dome of energy leaps up over her just as the swing makes contact, and Al uses his body to shield Wrath from the flying debris sent everywhere.

It's a good thing that Wrath isn't terribly heavy. And, when he's not squirming and flailing like a beached fish, not terribly hard to carry.

But on the other hand, what IS hard is to avoid the flying rocks and broken branches that are flung into the air by the impact-- Lisa's Protect bubble keeps her safe from even a single hair on her body getting out of place, but a good two-foot dent in the vines below her feet is pounded in by the impact.

And, of course, even as one of the beast's enormous arms is occupied with the Typhlosion, a swathe of vines lining the ditch floor (which are... apparently part of the Tangrowth's body??? Gross) are slithering up its sides after the two boys, seemingly with minds of their own.

This thing had been sleeping down there for like... god knows how long. IT'S PRETTY HUNGRY BY NOW.

Wrath had yelped when the older boy threw himself over him, but it's not until he sees the vines quickly creeping across the ground at them that he really speaks up.

"AAA! AAAAA! LOOK OUT!"

Shoving Alphonse off of himself, he grabs frantically for the Pokeballs that he... pretty much only JUST NOW remembered that he had.

In a flash of white light and a mingling series of trills, snorts, and growls, all six of Wrath's carried Pokemon roster pop out: Mama the Kangaskhan, Pipsqueak the Zubat, Mad the Deino, Sleepy the Vaporeon, Hungry the Trubbish, and Jelly the Ditto.

Mama's muscles ripple as she shakes off any lingering stiffness from the interior of the Pokeball, nostrils flaring as she steps in front of both her trainer and his... frrrrienemy? Yes, she'll go with that. They can work out the strange quirks of human relationships later. She is confident. She is a mama bear, ready to flip cars, kick butt, and take names for her babies. SHE IS.... woefully underleveled.

Behind her, Wrath's other Pokemon-- even MORE underleveled, quiver in place.

DB WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?? WHAT IS THAT?! TRAINER WHY DID YOU SEND US OUT HOLY SHIT DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT LEVEL THAT THING IS?!

Al grits his teeth, hit by several of the larger branches and rocks. One particularly sharp one tears across the side of his head, and blood drips down the side of his face. Al doesn't even bother to check it--he isn't woozy, and there's more important things to worry about.

Like those vines cracking through the ground. Lisa can't fight the main body and take care of those at once; Al grabs two more balls from his belt and a Meowstic pair leap out at the same time Wrath's Pokemon. It's hard to tell if they're shaken by the sheer size of the foe in front of them, given their creepy-horror-child act, but they don't back away and look to Al for orders.

Al is glad he has these two with him. Out of all of his roster, they always made the best team and were smart enough to act on their own initiative. They're lower level, but Alphonse has faith in them. "Jill, keep those vines away from us! Jack, do what you can to keep us safe!"

The pair turn back around and both their ears snap up as they let out their attacks--Jill unleashing a Psychic blast to knock the vines back while Jack springs up a Reflect over each Pokemon in turn, starting with Mama and the rest of Wrath's babies.

Alphonse turns to Wrath then, reaching out for him. "Stay close to me! I'll keep you safe, I promise!"

Lisa, meanwhile, has fought her way out of the crushing debris of Big Papa Tangrowth's opening attack. She roars again and lets loose with Inferno, a giant blast of fire that tries to wrap around and engulf it but only succeeds in covering the front half of the giant beast.

A few mere MOMENTS ago, Wrath would have cackled like the horrible goblin child he was at the sight of blood pouring from Al's headwound. But he's not. See? ALREADY he has grown.

Actually, it's more likely that he's too distracted by the situation at hand to be a dick.

As a matter of fact, Alphonse successfully grabs a handful of the smaller boy's shirt, and Wrath's only immediate response is to look over at him, panicked.

"IT'S GONNA EAT US!"

His Pokemon seem relieved for the protection, but even Reflect can't make up for the fact that there's not a single one of them above level 25 at most. As the vines are pushed back and the front of the Tangrowth is set ablaze, it flails with its tree-trunk sized arm, grabbing at the Typhlosion with one of them. The other comes down on the ledge that the two trainers and their Pokemon are on, and Wrath's scatter like ninepins.

Lisa howls indignantly, thrashing and kicking in the thing's hold and leting out a gout of Flamethrower that...mostly hits air and little else, given her position.

"No, it won't!" Al turns to give Lisa and order, but his eyes go wide and again he grabs Wrath to protect him from the hit. They go flying along with the rest of the Pokemon, but not quite as far. Jack struggles to get up and uses Helping Hand to boost the power of Jill's Signal Beam, blasting the arm that came crashing down on them all. Fuck you, you don't get away with hurting their trainer!!

Al hisses in pain, teeth grit from the harsh impact. "Shit...Wrath, are you okay?" He pushes himself up, looking over the other boy nervously before turning back to the battle field to snap out a quick order. "Lisa, Toxic! Weaken that thing, now!"

In the Tangrowth's grip, Lisa snarls and bites hard on one of the tendrils wrapped around her, the power pumping as much potent poison into the thing as she can. It's big, and it's gonna need one hell of a dose to even begin to phase it.

Wrath had gone for a bit of a tumble as the ground underneath them quaked, but he doesn't look hurt-- just terrified.

Poor Al already has enough to deal with, and Wrath immediately screaming "DON'T LET IT PRICK YOU! DON'T LET IT PRICK YOU!!" into his ear probably will not help the poor boy's focus.

Fortunately, where Wrath isn't being particularly useful, his Pokemon (or one of them, anyway) will step up to the plate in his place.

With a growl that vibrates her entire body, Mama joins the fray, clawing and chomping at the vines binding Lisa. She's nowhere near high-leveled enough to even make a dent in the thing's HP, but it still notices.

Some of the vines slither away from Lisa's body to swipe at the Kangashkan and bat away at Jill's Signal Beam.

He mentally pushes Wrath's screams aside for now--hysterics are only going to get them hurt, and he can tell Wrath won't be calming down anytime soon. His eyes flick over the battlefield, and he curses under his breath before pulling out another Pokeball. They need more combatants, no matter what the type match-up is. "Eddie, go! Use Crunch!"

The Luxray comes out roaring, wasting no time charging into the fray and biting onto the arm that sweeps into Mama, Jack, and Jill. The attack is strong, but without a type advantage it isn't much more effective than the Signal Beam is, but he's latched on and not letting go. The Meowstic pair are struggling to get up, but they're not out of the fight yet.

Lisa, meanwhile, gnaws hard on that vine until her attack peters out--she's powerful, but she's no Poison-type. That's all she can manage to get out, and it'll have to do. Al's attention swings back over to her, and with a snapped out "Eruption!" she fair well explodes into a ball of flame, roaring and thrashing out of the Tangrowth's grip.

Between the fact that the battle is now five on one, and the EXPLOSION OF FIRE that is Lisa, the Tangrowth has officially had enough of trying to hold onto the Typhlosion. With a bugling cry that makes the trees vibrate, it lets go and takes a rumbling step back, its vines smoldering. And wilting in some places, thanks to the poison.

IT'S WORKING.

GET 'EM, KIDS!

Al grins when he sees the damage finally showing on the monstrous Tangrowth (excellent, it isn't a poison type!) and shouts out again. "Again! Drive it off!"

While Eddie growls and takes another Crunch out of the tangled vines of the arm, Jack and Jill finally find their footing again. Jill blasts it with Psychic while Jack...stares at it...very intensely. Meowstic Charm attacks, everyone. Lisa, finally down on the ground again, lets out a furious bellow and blasts herself into the thing's midsection with Flare Blitz.

Meanwhile, Al hauls Wrath up into his arms and carries him over to where the rest of his Pokemon are huddled in fear. He needs to make sure they're okay, now that the tide of the battle is turning.

As the Pokemon carry on their second wave of attack on the Tangrowth, the boys successfully make it to the patch of bushes where the remaining monsters are hiding. It's kind of hard to blame them. Pretty much none of them would be able to make it out of a battle with that thing without getting 1HKO'd.

Once Wrath is let down, Sleepy chirrups in concern and immediately starts to lick at his scraped knees. Wrath barely notices. He flops right there on the ground, eyes wide. His heart feels like it's about to come right out of his chest.

Al looks over them nervously and sighs with relief to see them all here and (relatively) unharmed. He casts a glance behind him to check on the battle before focusing on Wrath. His Pokemon (and Mama, bless her) seem to have things handled for now.

"Wrath, it's gonna be okay. It's not going to hurt you, we're driving it off! I'll keep you safe!"

He's curled in a fetal position, sides heaving like a snared rabbit.

But Al's words do seem to get through at least, and his eyes slide over to stare at the older boy over his shoulder, even as he continues to pant shallowly. Thankfully, it starts to slow before it heads into hyperventilation territory.

"... hh.... h'you..."

... Still too out of breath to talk properly, though.

"It's okay. I'll keep you safe, I promise. Nothing's gonna hurt you."

Al wraps an arm around Wrath's shoulders, smiling gently despite the HORRIBLE BATTLE RAGING BEHIND THEM. Lisa's roars are sounding pretty confident, he's not worried.

Wrath says nothing.

But considering that prior to this exact moment in time, his reaction would have been to scream angry epithets, that's a good thing.

Wordlessly, he wraps his arms around Sleepy and draws her close, still panting.

Safe.

What a strange concept.

Al hesitates a moment before wrapping is other arm around Wrath as well, pressing his forehead gently into the boy's tangled mass of hair. He doesn't say anything more just yet, just happy that Wrath is calming down and not trying to run off in terror.

Somewhere behind them, there is a great, rumbling crash that vibrates the very earth underneath them.

Through the combined efforts of their Pokemon, the great emperor of the forest had been sent back to its tangled, overgrown hibernation for the next hundred years or so.

They don't make a bad team after all.

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You were my best friend

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