AN: Yaay, draaama c"x I had to pad this chapter a lot, because I planned it wrong and we didn't roleplay enough to fill the chapter, so sorry Rio |"D There's going to be a little bit of stuff in there that I added myself.
Hope you enjoy, as always! 3
"Uh..." Buizel, who was riding a Staravia near the front, stopped his mount. The rest of the flock halted as well, looking at the front and waiting to see what would happen. "Guys? I think I lost the net."
"WELL, WE CAN SEE THAT!" shouted Eevee, red-faced. "I don't suppose you have any extras around?!" The Staravia she was riding looked like he wished he was somewhere else. Cyndaquil cringed.
"Uh," Buizel said nervously. "Why don't we land and talk to Sirai?" Eevee huffed at the mention of Sirai and assumed a cold and haughty air to everybody else for the rest of the flight.
The Staravia Eevee was riding turned to face the rest of the flock behind him.
"This is the second time in a row I've had to carry Eevee!" he angrily chirped at them. "Next time, someone else has to take a turn!"
The only one in Team J's group who understood the Flying-type's chirps was Buizel, and he, understandably, didn't repeat what was said to Eevee. Luckily, Zorua didn't happen to be casting any Flying-type illusions of herself at the moment, so she didn't hear this particular comment.
They landed in a small clearing with several Oran Berry bushes, which Zorua immediately dragged Cyndaquil to because she wanted help picking a snack. While the kids filled their rescue scarves with plump blue Berries, Buizel tapped the Base Key crystal mounted on his wristband. Sirai's solid blue holoscreen came to life, albeit a miniature version.
"What's up?" the AI asked, cheerful as always. "How's the mission going?"
"I, uh, ummm." Buizel paused. "I lost the net. A Combee caught it and flew away."
"Oooohhhhh." Sirai replied. "That's bad. That was the last escapable net we had..." A small bleeping noise emitted from the holoscreen as the AI ran through her databanks. "More are being made, but those won't be ready for about a week." If the AI had had a body, she would have shrugged. "You could try waiting that long, or..."
"Aaaargh!" Eevee broke in. Sirai's computerized voice was designed to travel over long distances, and even from the other end of the clearing Eevee had heard the AI's reply. "We don't have time to be patient!" Cyndaquil almost squashed an Oran Berry because his paws were trembling so badly. All the Bird Pokémon in the trees took flight, causing a miniature avalanche of leaves and one irritated Seedot, who immediately ran off.
"Fine, fine." Sirai said. "I'll hurry up. If you lost that net to a Combee in this area, then there's only one place it could be." She paused, perhaps for dramatic effect. "The Amber Castle." She giggled. "It doesn't have anything to do with that crazy scientist's daughter, though!" Sirai paused, but went on when nobody else laughed. "It's supposedly a giant castle made of dried honey or amber or something that the Combee live in." the AI explained.
"Ha, ha." Buizel sarcastically replied. "Try making your jokes about something that didn't nearly cause the destruction of life as we know it." He glanced at the sky- the sun was rapidly making its way across the sky. They needed to get the net back by nightfall, so as not to be thrown off schedule. "So... where is it?"
Eevee, who had been simmering in anger, rather than listening to the conversation between Buizel and the AI, suddenly pricked up her ears.
Apart from that joke being simply pathetic, she thought warily, there's something off about what Sirai just said. She racked through her memory, but found nothing. The Amber Castle... nothing wrong with that. Maybe I'm imagining things.
"You'll have to find a Mothim in order to find the Amber Castle." Sirai was saying. "Either that or stalk a Combee, but they can stay out all day doing jobs for the hive." The AI made her computerized giggling sound. "Your best bet would be spreading some honey on a tree and waiting for a Mothim to show up."
"W-where are we going to get honey?" asked Cyndaquil, contributing to the conversation for the first time. He hoped nobody would be mad at him. To his relief, nobody was. Zorua pulled out a small plastic jar from her rescue kit triumphantly. "Here's some!"
"O-oh." Cyndaquil grinned shyly. Eevee, on the other hand, regarded Zorua with mild suspicion. I hope she didn't steal it. Zorua wouldn't do that, right? All the same, I don't remember having honey in the rescue kits... well, whatever. She trotted over to Buizel, Zorua and Cyndaquil. "So, are we laying this Mothim trap or what? It's getting kind of late."
In reply to Eevee, Zorua unscrewed the lid of the jar with her teeth and poured half of it out on the nearest tree, a huge, sturdy oak tree with several Seedot hanging from its lush branches.
Eevee rolled her eyes and watched Zorua.
"Here," she said, padding forward. "That's a little low on the tree trunk, don't you think?" For indeed, Zorua was only about a foot tall- easily below a Mothim's flying range. The Evolution Pokémon knew better than to offer the stubborn Dark-type help, however. Just like me when I was little. She batted the thought away.
"Well, maybe a little." Zorua said. She surveyed the tree critically and paused to think for a moment. "Tower stack!" she exclaimed suddenly. She ran over to a somewhat bewildered Buizel and pulled him over by the tree. The little Dark-type then pushed Cyndaquil next to Buizel and said eagerly, "Climb on!"
"Huh?" Buizel was a little confused for a few seconds. "Oh! I get it!" He grabbed Cyndaquil and put the timid Fire-type around his shoulders. "Eevee! Get on top of Cyn!" Both Cyndaquil and Eevee squealed in protest.
"She's h-heavier than me!" squeaked Cyndaquil, trembling. Eevee rolled her eyes for perhaps the fiftieth time that day.
"If I must," she said, in a tired voice, and sprang lightly to the top of the tower stack. "Hurry up, kid," she snapped.
Zorua scampered her way up the stack of Pokémon. Shimmying up Buizel's back and lightly springing off of Cyndaquil's head, the little fox-like Pokémon pulled herself onto Eevee's back and pulled out the open jar of honey.
"Lean closer, you guys! I can't reach!" the Dark-type exclaimed, straining with her short paws to reach the tree bark.
Buizel stepped closer to the tree, Cyndaquil scooted forward a little, and Eevee leaned forwards a few inches. Zorua poured the honey onto the tree bark and then jumped up and down in happiness. Eevee grunted in pain.
"Yay! We set up the Mothim tra-Whooaa!" Zorua's excited squeal turned into a yelp as the pile toppled, inevitably.
Cyndaquil let out another high-pitched squeal as he tumbled towards the ground. Eevee landed on her feet, as usual, and glared at everyone, licking honey from her face. She flicked her bushy tail out towards Cyndaquil, who landed safely on it.
"Don't jump on a tower stack!" she wailed, throwing both paws up in the air. They're all hopeless. Hopeless! Buizel patted her on the shoulder consolingly.
Cyndaquil picked himself off of Eevee's tail hurriedly and shook himself. Honey was splattered all over his short, sleek coat. He glanced at the other three worriedly. Eek! Please don't blame me!
Zorua cast a skiploom illusion and floated up to the level of the honey trap. She stuck out a small paw and wiped a bit of it off, before sticking it in her mouth and sucking on it.
"Mmmmm..." she said contentedly, apparently unaware of her teammates' distress. "I love honey."
She canceled out the illusion and fell back to the ground.
Eevee rolled her eyes- again- and glared at everyone- again.
"Well?!" she demanded. "So, are we, you know, gonna HIDE, or just sit around here joking around?" Cyndaquil backed away, a bit closer to Buizel. Maybe we should hide. I dunno how smart Mothim are, but if we're all hanging around here, they're sure to be suspicious. He scanned the sky, but nothing remotely Mothim-like appeared.
"Hey! Look!" Zorua pointed excitedly to one of the lower tree branches. On it was a Mothim. The Mothim flew down to the patch of honey and began licking it off the tree bark.
Buizel walked over and said, "Excuse me. Do you know the way to the Amber Castle?"
The Mothim ignored him and continued enjoying the honey. Eevee had to sigh.
"Buizel, he's a Mothim." she said irritably. "I don't really think he's going to answer us." She looked around. "Maybe it would be better to, I dunno, just follow him?" The Mothim showed no signs of doing anything but licking the honey.
Zorua scraped some honey off of the lower honey trap and formed the sticky liquid into a ball. She tossed it at the Mothim and it hit his face. The Mothim licked it off and then turned to Zorua.
"What was that for?" he asked, strangely calm.
"We asked you if you knew the way to the Amber Castle, where the Combee live." Zorua repeated Buizel's words slowly, as if talking to a baby.
"Oh." Mothim turned to face a large Pomeg Berry plant, in full bloom. "There's a Combee in that large flower." He licked more honey off of the tree. "If you shake the plant and follow the Combee that comes out, it'll lead you close enough for you to find the castle yourselves." The Bug-type Pokémon seemed to shrug, then turned and flew away.
Buizel looked at the reatreating form of the Mothim. "He's not very sharp, is he?" the Sea Weasel Pokémon remarked.
"He's as dull as a butter knife," agreed Eevee. "Should we wait for another one to come along, or just try and follow that Combee?" Without really waiting for an answer, she marched over to the Pomeg plant and shook its blossom. A tiny Combee buzzed out of it, looking confused. Cyndaquil hoped she didn't have any stingers, but she looked pretty harmless to him. You never know. Eevee looked pretty harmless at first, too. He shivered and inched closer to Buizel.
The Water-type turned to the others, looking more cheerful. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get that net back!" Zorua immediately bounded after the Combee, cancelling out any further discussion. Buizel followed, and Cyndaquil hurried after him nervously, leaving just Eevee in the clearing.
Eevee groaned and followed them.
Cyndaquil and Zorua frolicked on ahead, nibbling on the various berries they had found in the forest. While Buizel was chatting to Sirai on his holopad, Eevee was lost in thought. She barely even noticed when Zorua tripped over her tail and spilled Oran Berries everywhere.
Is this really going to work? she thought glumly, kicking aside an Oran Berry that had rolled into her path. It's only the first day of this mission, and everything is already going wrong. She sighed, watching Zorua chase like a mad Pokémon after the Oran Berry she had kicked. The kid will be heartbroken if we can't find Zoroark. Losing a family member is... tough... She shook her head, dispelling the gloomy thoughts. But we should keep going anyways. She glanced curiously over to Buizel, but rolled her eyes when she saw he was talking to Sirai. Just keep walking, then.
"How long until this thing actually goes TO the Amber Castle?!" wailed Eevee. It was almost dusk, and the Combee had most likely visited every flower in the forest by now- at least, it seemed so to the four weary teammates. As the innocent-looking little Pokémon dipped into yet another blossom, Eevee suppressed the urge to smash her head into the ground. Cyndaquil suppressed a yawn. The two smaller Pokémon were drooping, tired from their long trek around the forest. Even Buizel was flagging somewhat. Eevee groaned and vowed never to follow the advice of a Mothim again.
"Mmmmm..." Zorua said sleepily, ignoring her teammates. "honey smells sweet..." She was suddenly wide awake. "Hang on. Guys, do you smell that?"
Buizel sniffed the air uncertainly. Mildly surprised, he looked up. "Yeah, I do. It smells... sweet. Like flowers and... honey!" He looked at the others eagerly. "We must be close to the castle!"
Zorua winked cockily at the rest of them. "Just gotta follow your nose!" she giggled, skipping ahead. Everyone seemed to have shaken off their weariness at being so close to their goal.
Cyndaquil trailed behind the other three. It was true, the scent of nectar was thick in the air. He sniffed happily. It reminded him of the sweet treats that he used to get back at the lab. For a moment, he actually forgot that he was scared of going to the Amber Castle.
"Whoa." Eevee's sharp yelp stopped everyone in their tracks- skipping Zorua, dreamy Cyndaquil, and cheerful Buizel. "Guys... Do you see that?"
