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They had been talking - bickering, really. Private Ada Sanger had made an irritated comment about her Unown, Hannah Campbell had retorted. And then everything had gone to hell. Gasps had been heard over the radio; shouts, a screech and a crack that nearly deafened the communications officer listening in HQ. Yelling, and screaming, all undercut by the sound of the bunker groaning and shuddering - and Hannah’s voice somewhere in the middle of it all, resisting the order to leave, forcing her Kirlia to teleport her away from the bunker without her directive.
It wouldn’t go unremarked.
Kanto Military Encampment, 1 week after Battle of Undella
The Kanto mess hall generally emptied quite rapidly after lunch. Despite being unable to use human language, Sarge had made it very clear to the recruits how he felt about latecomers to the afternoon drills, and even though training was complete, most of the diners still cleaned their plates quickly out of habit - though there were a few exceptions: people like Chartmire, who had never cared in the first place; people like Risa, who been careful never to end up on the receiving end of one of the Swampert’s disciplinary Hydro Pumps but easily fell back into old habits once the threat had lifted; and the higher-ranking officers and support staff, who had not been subjected to its training regimen.
This suited Hannah just fine. Today, as usual, she had arrived ten minutes before they stopped serving dinner, by which point most of the recruits had already cleared out, with the ones that remained talking in quieter tones, conversation subdued to an acceptable level by the emptying room.
She headed towards the serving table, received her tray, and turned to scan the room for an agreeable place to sit. A couple of tables to her left, Carina Silvers was sitting with her friend Ruth Vernon and her personal assistant (holding court, Hannah thought, narrowing her eyes - how the Johtoan girl had been given leave to remain in the military encampment, despite both Hannah’s report on her attitude and the incriminating evidence they had found within her luggage, was beyond her comprehension); in a different corner, Malcolm Alvand was lounging in a chair, a half-finished beer in one hand. He caught her taking in the box at his feet, stuffed full of what appeared to be mostly empty bottles, and grinned at her. The expression was more a baring of teeth than an actual smile.
Hannah’s sense of disapproval briefly fought her hunger and lost. She lifted her chin in disdain, turned away from his shark-toothed smirk, and spotted Risa, who was installed in his usual spot a few tables over. He lifted a hand, and she navigated her way through the chairs and benches towards his table.
He raised his eyebrows as she set down the tray beside him. “That’s a pretty generous serving they gave you....”
Hannah gave him a look. “You have seen my evening meal, I receive the normal science staff portion then. I expect they have simply begun to notice my absence at breakfast and are adjusting my lunch portion accordingly.”
“I’ll say! That’s almost soldier-sized.” He leaned towards her with a conspiratorial smirk. “How many Dragon-types did you promise them, Hannahkins?”
“As usual, you are the epitome of wit, Captain.”
Risa’s smile flickered slightly at her use of his old rank, and he sat back in his chair. Hannah pretended not to notice, but as she started on her meal, a cool silence formed between them.
Risa had never said as much, but Hannah knew he wanted their old friendship back. To rewind it to what it had been at the Snowpoint Research Center, as if the last half decade had not happened. She knew that each time she called him Captain instead of using his name it irritated him a little more, that he thought he deserved a little more familiarity; but for her, the past five years had changed too much. She wouldn’t let this last barrier drop. Not yet.
“Mrs Campbell?”
Hannah paused, spoon raised halfway to her lips, and turned her head. A few metres away, a young soldier was attempting to make his way towards her and Risa, hampered by the chairs in his way and the parcels in his arms.
“Yes?” she said.
He stopped attempting to force his way through the jumble of seats, and rummaged among the parcels. Eventually, he extracted a letter from the bundle, and held it towards her.
“Message for you, from Command.”
Eyebrows rising, she glanced at Risa. From Command? He met her gaze and shrugged, but his expression had become suspiciously neutral, as though he had already made the connections in his mind and figured out the letter’s purpose.
Hannah frowned, and rose from her seat, walking over to meet the messenger halfway. He passed her the letter, gave her the uncertain, formal bob of his head that all soldiers tended to give the non-combatant staff, and headed back towards the door as she turned the envelope in her hands, examining it closely.
Sure enough, the letter bore all the ink stamps that messages from Command tended to have, but she was at a loss for what it could be. Surely she had not missed a deadline or a report? No, of course not.
But if not that, then what?
Hannah glanced at Risa again, but he had turned back to his meal. She opened up the envelope, took out the sheet from inside, unfolded it, and scanned it quickly.
Then she did so again. And again, each subsequent readthrough slower than the last. The more she read, the more incredulous her expression became.
“I’ve been prohibited from the battlefield.” She spoke very slowly, as if she thought she might be mistaken. “I am being restricted to the Command posts.” Her eyes rounded in disbelief and sudden anger. “They are choosing Hamilton to replace me!”
“Hamilton, huh.” Risa’s tone was noncommittal.
“He is - he is a complete incompetent! His research techniques are shoddy, his memory for detail is simply appalling, he cannot extrapolate viable results from even the most explicit data - what possible value could he have as a field researcher?”
Risa didn’t respond for a minute; then the legs of his chair scraped the floor as he turned to face her. “An ability to follow orders?”
Hannah crumpled the letter into a ball with both hands in irritation. “My apologies for asking such an inane question, we should of course endeavour to prize blind obedience over the ability to actually obtain useful data.”
Risa stood up.
“Yes. We should.”
Hannah frowned at him. The muscles on his face were tight. It took her a moment to realise that, for some reason, Risa was very angry with her.
“You’re not telling me you agree with them?”
His reply was curt. “Of course I do.”
It took Hannah a moment to find her tongue. “You truly think that Hamilton is - Why on earth do you agree with them?”
He spread his arms wide, as if amazed that she even had to ask.
“Because they let you on the battlefield last time - and you behaved like an idiot! Sanger told you to get out and you didn’t listen to her until the bunker was falling to pieces around you. You could have been killed. Or worse! The Jays could have picked you up and then pretty much all of Kanto’s Pokémon assignment strategies would be in their hands.”
Hannah waved an apparently dismissive hand, turning away from him. Inwardly, she was fighting to contain her rising anger. “You exaggerate the danger. Persephone’s Teleport was all the defense I needed and she acted exactly according to plan. Private Sanger’s order was premature - ”
“Pokémon can be disabled. What if it hadn’t been a landslide, what if you had been caught in the explosion, what if it had been poison or spores?” Risa shook his head in frustration. “That’s not even the point, the point is that you are not a soldier, Hannah. You - are - a - civilian. That means that if you are in a warzone you jump when the soldiers tell you to jump, because the last thing anyone needs in a life or death situation is some scientist strutting around arguing with everyone, acting like she knows more about acceptable risk than the people who have been trained for it. If you can’t be trusted to listen - ”
“I never compromise anyone’s safety except my own.”
Risa made a scoffing sound. “Yes, I'm sure the soldiers around you would just stand aside if a Jay went for you, and not try to defend you in any way whatsoever. And why are you so careless about your own safety anyway? Haven't you thought about what would happen to your little kid if you - ”
Hannah whirled around, undamaged skin suddenly pale except for the bright flush of anger on her cheek.
“You know nothing about my life so do not talk as if you do!” she snapped.
Risa jerked back as if slapped.
“Azelf give me patience,” he swore, “you are completely impossible like this. You are behaving like a child! If he knew that you were acting so - "
Hannah's hand flew to Persephone's Pokéball, but before she could go any further, Malcolm's voice sounded out from the corner of the room.
"Snowflake, if you got nothing better to do than wind up sci-res staff then you can go prance oer to the kitchens for dishwashing duty, Down Under could use the extra competence. Off you go."
The drill sergeant was still in the same corner as before, but he had shifted position slightly, apparently to get a better view of the fight. The sound of his voice, the realisation that he’d been watching, brought Hannah down to earth with a start. She realised that the rest of the diners had vanished at some point during the argument, and released her grip on the Pokéball, feeling something close to mortification at having reached for it at all.
Risa turned to stare at Malcolm. “What? This is none of your - I didn’t do anything - ”
“You heard me, recruit.”
Risa gave him a look of thinly-veiled loathing and contempt. “Yes, sir.”
He spun on his heel and stormed out of the room. As the door swung shut behind him, Hannah closed her eyes and pressed her hand against the unblemished side of her face. Her cheek was hot beneath her palm.
Good grief. I cannot allow him to continue pushing me to the brink like this. It is utterly undignified.
From the corner, she heard a series of glass clinks.
"'Sright though," Malcolm said.
Hannah opened her eyes and stared at him. The drill sergeant was apparently engrossed in rummaging through the box of empty beer bottles. “I beg your pardon?”
He located an unopened bottle within the mound and pulled it out, waving it in the direction of the door. “Snowflake’s got a point. You’re not a soldier, you’re not equipped for combat. But somewhere in the back of your mind I reckon you know that.”
“And what on earth is that supposed to mean?”
Malcolm fastened his teeth around the cap and yanked the bottle upwards. The cap popped off with a k-chak, and he spat it out onto the floor. “Been doing this for a good few years now, think I've never come across someone with a death wish before?"
Hannah’s skin went cold.
"I do not have a death wish, sergeant."
“Yeah.” Malcolm took a swig from the bottle before continuing. “Brain like yours, you’ve got too many plans and schemes to just go out and end it all but I bet you wouldn’t be disappointed if someone did it for you. Being dead might solve you a few problems, eh.”
He got to his feet.
"Better pull it together, Mrs C, because if you pull a stunt like that again someone's gon wind up getting killed, and unless you're very, very lucky, it's not gon be you."
He left. Hannah remained rooted to the spot long after the door swung shut behind him.
It wouldn’t go unremarked.
Kanto Military Encampment, 1 week after Battle of Undella
The Kanto mess hall generally emptied quite rapidly after lunch. Despite being unable to use human language, Sarge had made it very clear to the recruits how he felt about latecomers to the afternoon drills, and even though training was complete, most of the diners still cleaned their plates quickly out of habit - though there were a few exceptions: people like Chartmire, who had never cared in the first place; people like Risa, who been careful never to end up on the receiving end of one of the Swampert’s disciplinary Hydro Pumps but easily fell back into old habits once the threat had lifted; and the higher-ranking officers and support staff, who had not been subjected to its training regimen.
This suited Hannah just fine. Today, as usual, she had arrived ten minutes before they stopped serving dinner, by which point most of the recruits had already cleared out, with the ones that remained talking in quieter tones, conversation subdued to an acceptable level by the emptying room.
She headed towards the serving table, received her tray, and turned to scan the room for an agreeable place to sit. A couple of tables to her left, Carina Silvers was sitting with her friend Ruth Vernon and her personal assistant (holding court, Hannah thought, narrowing her eyes - how the Johtoan girl had been given leave to remain in the military encampment, despite both Hannah’s report on her attitude and the incriminating evidence they had found within her luggage, was beyond her comprehension); in a different corner, Malcolm Alvand was lounging in a chair, a half-finished beer in one hand. He caught her taking in the box at his feet, stuffed full of what appeared to be mostly empty bottles, and grinned at her. The expression was more a baring of teeth than an actual smile.
Hannah’s sense of disapproval briefly fought her hunger and lost. She lifted her chin in disdain, turned away from his shark-toothed smirk, and spotted Risa, who was installed in his usual spot a few tables over. He lifted a hand, and she navigated her way through the chairs and benches towards his table.
He raised his eyebrows as she set down the tray beside him. “That’s a pretty generous serving they gave you....”
Hannah gave him a look. “You have seen my evening meal, I receive the normal science staff portion then. I expect they have simply begun to notice my absence at breakfast and are adjusting my lunch portion accordingly.”
“I’ll say! That’s almost soldier-sized.” He leaned towards her with a conspiratorial smirk. “How many Dragon-types did you promise them, Hannahkins?”
“As usual, you are the epitome of wit, Captain.”
Risa’s smile flickered slightly at her use of his old rank, and he sat back in his chair. Hannah pretended not to notice, but as she started on her meal, a cool silence formed between them.
Risa had never said as much, but Hannah knew he wanted their old friendship back. To rewind it to what it had been at the Snowpoint Research Center, as if the last half decade had not happened. She knew that each time she called him Captain instead of using his name it irritated him a little more, that he thought he deserved a little more familiarity; but for her, the past five years had changed too much. She wouldn’t let this last barrier drop. Not yet.
“Mrs Campbell?”
Hannah paused, spoon raised halfway to her lips, and turned her head. A few metres away, a young soldier was attempting to make his way towards her and Risa, hampered by the chairs in his way and the parcels in his arms.
“Yes?” she said.
He stopped attempting to force his way through the jumble of seats, and rummaged among the parcels. Eventually, he extracted a letter from the bundle, and held it towards her.
“Message for you, from Command.”
Eyebrows rising, she glanced at Risa. From Command? He met her gaze and shrugged, but his expression had become suspiciously neutral, as though he had already made the connections in his mind and figured out the letter’s purpose.
Hannah frowned, and rose from her seat, walking over to meet the messenger halfway. He passed her the letter, gave her the uncertain, formal bob of his head that all soldiers tended to give the non-combatant staff, and headed back towards the door as she turned the envelope in her hands, examining it closely.
Sure enough, the letter bore all the ink stamps that messages from Command tended to have, but she was at a loss for what it could be. Surely she had not missed a deadline or a report? No, of course not.
But if not that, then what?
Hannah glanced at Risa again, but he had turned back to his meal. She opened up the envelope, took out the sheet from inside, unfolded it, and scanned it quickly.
Then she did so again. And again, each subsequent readthrough slower than the last. The more she read, the more incredulous her expression became.
“I’ve been prohibited from the battlefield.” She spoke very slowly, as if she thought she might be mistaken. “I am being restricted to the Command posts.” Her eyes rounded in disbelief and sudden anger. “They are choosing Hamilton to replace me!”
“Hamilton, huh.” Risa’s tone was noncommittal.
“He is - he is a complete incompetent! His research techniques are shoddy, his memory for detail is simply appalling, he cannot extrapolate viable results from even the most explicit data - what possible value could he have as a field researcher?”
Risa didn’t respond for a minute; then the legs of his chair scraped the floor as he turned to face her. “An ability to follow orders?”
Hannah crumpled the letter into a ball with both hands in irritation. “My apologies for asking such an inane question, we should of course endeavour to prize blind obedience over the ability to actually obtain useful data.”
Risa stood up.
“Yes. We should.”
Hannah frowned at him. The muscles on his face were tight. It took her a moment to realise that, for some reason, Risa was very angry with her.
“You’re not telling me you agree with them?”
His reply was curt. “Of course I do.”
It took Hannah a moment to find her tongue. “You truly think that Hamilton is - Why on earth do you agree with them?”
He spread his arms wide, as if amazed that she even had to ask.
“Because they let you on the battlefield last time - and you behaved like an idiot! Sanger told you to get out and you didn’t listen to her until the bunker was falling to pieces around you. You could have been killed. Or worse! The Jays could have picked you up and then pretty much all of Kanto’s Pokémon assignment strategies would be in their hands.”
Hannah waved an apparently dismissive hand, turning away from him. Inwardly, she was fighting to contain her rising anger. “You exaggerate the danger. Persephone’s Teleport was all the defense I needed and she acted exactly according to plan. Private Sanger’s order was premature - ”
“Pokémon can be disabled. What if it hadn’t been a landslide, what if you had been caught in the explosion, what if it had been poison or spores?” Risa shook his head in frustration. “That’s not even the point, the point is that you are not a soldier, Hannah. You - are - a - civilian. That means that if you are in a warzone you jump when the soldiers tell you to jump, because the last thing anyone needs in a life or death situation is some scientist strutting around arguing with everyone, acting like she knows more about acceptable risk than the people who have been trained for it. If you can’t be trusted to listen - ”
“I never compromise anyone’s safety except my own.”
Risa made a scoffing sound. “Yes, I'm sure the soldiers around you would just stand aside if a Jay went for you, and not try to defend you in any way whatsoever. And why are you so careless about your own safety anyway? Haven't you thought about what would happen to your little kid if you - ”
Hannah whirled around, undamaged skin suddenly pale except for the bright flush of anger on her cheek.
“You know nothing about my life so do not talk as if you do!” she snapped.
Risa jerked back as if slapped.
“Azelf give me patience,” he swore, “you are completely impossible like this. You are behaving like a child! If he knew that you were acting so - "
Hannah's hand flew to Persephone's Pokéball, but before she could go any further, Malcolm's voice sounded out from the corner of the room.
"Snowflake, if you got nothing better to do than wind up sci-res staff then you can go prance oer to the kitchens for dishwashing duty, Down Under could use the extra competence. Off you go."
The drill sergeant was still in the same corner as before, but he had shifted position slightly, apparently to get a better view of the fight. The sound of his voice, the realisation that he’d been watching, brought Hannah down to earth with a start. She realised that the rest of the diners had vanished at some point during the argument, and released her grip on the Pokéball, feeling something close to mortification at having reached for it at all.
Risa turned to stare at Malcolm. “What? This is none of your - I didn’t do anything - ”
“You heard me, recruit.”
Risa gave him a look of thinly-veiled loathing and contempt. “Yes, sir.”
He spun on his heel and stormed out of the room. As the door swung shut behind him, Hannah closed her eyes and pressed her hand against the unblemished side of her face. Her cheek was hot beneath her palm.
Good grief. I cannot allow him to continue pushing me to the brink like this. It is utterly undignified.
From the corner, she heard a series of glass clinks.
"'Sright though," Malcolm said.
Hannah opened her eyes and stared at him. The drill sergeant was apparently engrossed in rummaging through the box of empty beer bottles. “I beg your pardon?”
He located an unopened bottle within the mound and pulled it out, waving it in the direction of the door. “Snowflake’s got a point. You’re not a soldier, you’re not equipped for combat. But somewhere in the back of your mind I reckon you know that.”
“And what on earth is that supposed to mean?”
Malcolm fastened his teeth around the cap and yanked the bottle upwards. The cap popped off with a k-chak, and he spat it out onto the floor. “Been doing this for a good few years now, think I've never come across someone with a death wish before?"
Hannah’s skin went cold.
"I do not have a death wish, sergeant."
“Yeah.” Malcolm took a swig from the bottle before continuing. “Brain like yours, you’ve got too many plans and schemes to just go out and end it all but I bet you wouldn’t be disappointed if someone did it for you. Being dead might solve you a few problems, eh.”
He got to his feet.
"Better pull it together, Mrs C, because if you pull a stunt like that again someone's gon wind up getting killed, and unless you're very, very lucky, it's not gon be you."
He left. Hannah remained rooted to the spot long after the door swung shut behind him.
Suggested Collections
Featured in Groups
In Which: Malcolm clears a box of alcohol, Risa ragequits and Hannah's motivations are hinted at
Next: [link]
Time to get some plot on the go! Make sure to read ~cocoaferret's Round Two comics, they are so stylish 8'D And, y'know, directly precede this one SO YES, READ THEM.
--
Starring:
Hannah Campbell
Risa
Malcolm Alvand (and Sarge)
With appearances from:
Carina Silvers
Ruth Vernon
Alfred Johnson
And honourable mentions:
Ada Sanger
Aelbane Chartmire
--
Speaking characters are © me, *AleksanderZee and *Vhu respectively; Pokemon is © Nintendo.
Next: [link]
Time to get some plot on the go! Make sure to read ~cocoaferret's Round Two comics, they are so stylish 8'D And, y'know, directly precede this one SO YES, READ THEM.
--
Starring:
Hannah Campbell
Risa
Malcolm Alvand (and Sarge)
With appearances from:
Carina Silvers
Ruth Vernon
Alfred Johnson
And honourable mentions:
Ada Sanger
Aelbane Chartmire
--
Speaking characters are © me, *AleksanderZee and *Vhu respectively; Pokemon is © Nintendo.
© 2012 - 2024 AriadneArca
Comments8
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I love it and I'm not even following end run, why do you have to make Hannah so awesome? 
you should bring her to Circus of the damned... I haven't seen you on msn in AGEEES
you should bring her to Circus of the damned... I haven't seen you on msn in AGEEES