*Marie burst's in*
Marie: I'm not late, I'm not late!
PC: Yeah… you're not, anyway-
Lloyd: Hey Champ, I've been reading the original and I've noticed you hardly added any character backstory in it.
*Reigner drags Lloyd away*
PC: Why do you think I rewrote it before I posted it? But yeah my previous version was too short and had too little detail, heck I delayed the original posting of the story because I almost puked after reading it before I rewrote it.
Marie: Yeah… It was bad.
PC: But you're reading an updated version with longer Boss battles, more random encounters, more backstory, more equipment, more… well, more stuff.
Marie: So it's like a Director's cut of a video game, filled with everything not included in the original.
PC: Well more of a remastering but call it whatever you like, ON WITH THE CHAPTER!
*Chapter 21*
*Byron' P.O.V.*
Arriving at The Enhived Forests the first thing I noticed were that in almost every tree was a hive or some sort of nesting area for bug type colonies, most of which were abandoned. Kraig and I walked along the side of the Caravan because we wanted to talk privately about things that local Morph's would never understand, and a few things else.
"So when did you and Tia start dating." I asked causing Kraig to stumble, "Hey it was just a kiss for victory, it's bound to happen." Kraig attempted to defend, "Yeah… but if that was the case either she would realize what she was doing and back off immediately, or knowing you, you would have pushed her away. Plus you leaned into it." I replied. Kraig remained silent for a while, "The night we told them the truth." Kraig said, I gave him a hearty slap on the back, "Good for you Kraig, finally breaking that shell of yours. Please tell me you haven't done it yet." I said, "Relax Byron I know better than most hormone driven humans." Kraigg said, "Still dissing humans huh." I said and let's be honest with ourselves, humans are idiots.
We continued along the road until Kraig spoke up again, "I kinda feel bad for bug types, they always seem to get a bad reputation, even among fanfiction writers." Kraig said, "Yeah I know, there are only so few bugs given decent respect while others are just pegged as either useless or pointless, or downright cruel." I said, "Take Beedrill, sure the one we encountered way back when did enforce that stereotype, but think about it, in the anime they were always depicted as incredibly violent and in fanfiction bug types are hardly ever used by the main character save for the ones given decent respect, I.E. Scizor." Kraig said, "I know, Pokemon like Leavanny and Vespiquen are just forgotten about in the fanfiction community, and Beedrill is given just as bad a treatment as they do in the anime." I said.
Looking up I saw a few Beedrill flying overhead, they seemed to be dancing around one another, probably a courting dance of some sort. "Speaking of types with bad reps I think Dark and Poison types have it the worst." I said, "I hear you, those two types and used in such bulk by the villain teams." Kraig said, "Seriously, Team Flare was the worst of them all, with a name like 'Team Flare' I'd expect them to use a lot of fire types but noooo, they use Houndour, Zubat and Spinarak." I said, "Let's not forget that their grunts put up a bigger fight than the Admins." Kraig said, "Team Flare, more like Team Failure." I joked, "It's amazing Dar-Arceus's army isn't filled mostly by Dark and Poison types." Kraig said referencing what Oina spilled about Dar-Arceus's troops.
"Speaking of Dar-Arceus's troops I'm amazed we haven't encountered that many save for his generals." I said, "True, it's like he thinks his monsters and 'mon will suffice." Kraig said.
Soon we reached Hiverendal, which in all honesty is a giant hive designed as a multi-tiered city, "This is one of those cities that require a map." I muttered looking around, "No kidding, I actually have a couple maps for this city, you guys go shopping, I need to find a friend." Clyde said anding me a map and then he hopped off the caravan and ran off while following a map of his own.
We went through the shopping district but were a little disappointed that the armor they sold didn't fully stack up to the effectiveness of Dragon Steel, and really only had one point of defense over Druddigon hide so we really only bought a Vespiquen Robe for Reia along with a Hive Staff.
Clyde returned as we finished restocking our provisions, and he had brought Escavalier morph with him, "Guy's this is my old friend Kreen." Clyde introduced, first thing I noticed about Kreen was he seemed a little stressed about something, "What's the matter Kreen?" Reia asked, "My wife Clair was kidnapped by Dar-Arceus troops and taken to the Forbidden Hives." Kreen said, 'Why would Dar-Arceus kidnap someone at random? Wait… he did the same thing with Marin and turned her- Arceus have mercy on her soul.' I thought as Kreen marked down the location of the Forbidden Hives on a map of the Enhived Forest.
Following the map through the forest, one of the things I noticed was that the closer we got to the Forbidden Hives the less abandoned random hives there were, yet none of the bugs attacked us, not even Beedrill.
That's when we were stopped, not by 'Mon , but by a small troop of Dar-Arceus soldiers, now I had a good look at their uniforms. This Troop was a troop of eight Durant Morphs, they wore what appeared to be black single piece suit with only a breastplate, forearm guards, shin guards with boots, and a simple looking helmet that had a visor over their eyes, they all held near identical swords that looked incredibly thin, including the grip, there was no visible guard to separate the blade from the grip. "Halt in the name of Dar-Arceus!" one of the Durant shouted, "Oh you have got to be kidding me." I said as we all got of the caravan, "By order of Dar-Arceus, Byron and his Companions must be executed on sight." A Durant said, "Seriously eight guys, does Dar-Arceus even realize he needs more than one troop per person." Oina said ignoring the troops, "Especially for Kraig." Tia said, "Let's just put this guys out of their misery." Nyra said drawing her sword.
*Encounter, Music- FF8: Don't be afraid*
The troops seemed to realized they were being ignored and charged us, The one who was met with a flaming Chakram as I evolved and threw it at him. The one who charged Kraig got a free flying lesson. Reia smiled at the one of the troops just before she launched a fire blast at the guy. Tia simply stabbed her opponent in his neck before slashing him down. Oina's opponent was shocked to see she was still alive and was quickly decapitated. Nyra's opponent tried to fight back, but a Steel sword that thin could not withstand a Dragon Steel sword and was broken as Nyra cut through the soldier. Aira's opponent was punched in the nuts before getting fire punched in the face. The last soldier stared at Clyde, "I may be the last one here, but I will-" The Durant began to rant before Clyde cut him off by shooting him in the face
*Music end*
"Well, Dar-Arceus must have realized his troops are shitty soldiers and has been trying to keep them away from us." Kraig said putting his axe away.
We soon found the entrance of the Forbidden Hive to find Maria waiting in front of us. I stepped in front of the caravan and drew my katana. "Hello again sis." I said, "You told them I was your sister?" Maria asked caught a little off guard since before now I only referred to her as Maria, "Yeah, I told them my origins as well." I said, Maria sighed, "Please don't tell me you've fallen in love with one of the people in that caravan." Maria said, "No she not in the caravan, but kraig's gotten a girlfriend and she's in there." I said. Maria sighed, "Well I think we've passed the stage of trying to convince each other to stop so let's get this over with." Maria said drawing her cutlass
*Boss- Maria Crimson, Music- KH: Another side battle version*
Maria started the battle by launching a Shadow Ball at me that I took my Glaceon form to block, "I've prepared for that, time for a Brick Break!" Maria called out slashing my shield with such force the shield shattered into ice, "GAAH!" I shouted stumbling back, Maria gasped in fright, she had forgotten that fighting type moves are more than effective against ice types, "I'm so sorry about that, I didn't mean to hurt you like that." Maria said losing her stance momentarily, "It's fine sis, I wouldn't expect you to have memorized type match ups just yet." I said as my shield reformed on my arm and then I reverted to Eevee.
That's when another glow came from my ring, this one was also pink but was shaped like a circle with children's triangles on it representing a sun, then the glow soon encased me. "For the love of- how many evolutions do Eevee have?" Maria asked herself as the glow faded from me, revealing me to be an Espeon, I searched my person for a weapon only to find… a deck of Tarot Cards? "Huh?" Maria and I questioned as I looked at the card I randomly pulled from the deck of 21 cards starting from 0, The Fool, to 20, Judgement, the card I pulled out had an image of Yveltal holding a skull of some sort and at the bottom of the card was the roman numeral XIII, I flipped the card to see a deep purple slated with Arceus's Ring crest on it and upon further inspection i saw the edges of the cards were a sharp metal. 'I get it.' I thought as I used my new psychic ability to cause the whole deck to separate and float around me, "That is so cool." Maria said.
Maria then got her head back in the fight and tried to slash me but with a flick of my wrist I directed a card to knock aside her swing causing it to miss, "Damn." Maria said jumping back and pulling out a Leppa potion and drinking it, "I'm sorry if this really hurts, Astral Drain!" She called out. Running on pure instinct I grabbed a card of a Machamp holding a pair of swords and shields, Strength, "Shield Card!" I shouted crushing the card into shards. Moments before Maria's Breaker came into contact with me a human sized version of the Strength card appeared and blocked the Breaker, "What!?" Maria shouted as attack bounced off with such force she fell onto her back, she then used a smoke ball to escape.
*Music end, Maria-repelled*
The giant card faded and the original smaller card reappeared as I returned all the cards back into their holster. "Let's head inside." I said as I used my psychic abilities to float instead of walk.
We stepped inside the hive and I immediately saw the maze of intertwining paths, "This place is a maze, it'll take forever to find the queen's chambers." I said, "Sarage told me that Kyogre was being held below the hive, said it took forever to find the way to the bottom." Oina said, "Oh so we just head down, and this floor does look weak. Kraig we need your weight." I said, Kraig nodded and stood in the center of the room and jumped, the resulting weight of his armor coming down in such force shattered the floor as he started to fall, luckily for him I used some of my new telekinetic abilities to catch him, the using those abilities I lowered all of us to the lowest floor of the hive.
"Who dares disturb this Hive." A raspy voice called out, we all looked over to see a massive Vespiquen hovering above us, "That's Clair, Dar-Arceus did to her what he did to Marin!" Oina called out, "How can you tell?" I asked, "She has tit's." Oina replied
*Boss- Hive Queen, Music- Nier: deep crimson foe*
The Hive Queen shrieked out as she Launched a Poison Sting at us, I ran in front of everyone and pulled out pulled out the Magician card, which depicted a Mega-Alakazam 'mon, and crushed it, "Mirror Card!" I called out as a giant Magician card appeared and absorbed the needles before spinning and sending them right back at the Hive Queen causing her to suddenly double over in pain at being poisoned.
"Nice one!" Oina called out, the I grabbed a card of a Delibird standing behind a roulette wheel, Fortune, "Item Card!" I shouted crushing the card, the shards of the cards became a Leppa Potion, which then burst into little balls of light as the Item used itself on me. "Alright then that was sooner than I expected but hey, Gamble!" I shouted as I grabbed Fortune again, and with a flick of my hand it became five fortune cards, I threw the cards and they became five dice that exploded on impact with the Hive Queen.
*Music end- Hive Queen- defeated*
The smoke cleared to reveal an unconscious Vespiquen Morph in a yellow dress, behind her was a cell that held Kyogre prisoner, I went over and used a card to break the lock off and Let Kyogre out, "Is she gonna be okay?" The female Kyogre asked, "She'll be fine, Marin was and she went through something similar." I replied as Kyogre nodded and left.
We put Clair, the Vespiquen, into the caravan and began heading back toward Hiverendal, "No one liner for that battle?" Kraig asked, "It went by too fast I couldn't come up with anything." I said
And that's the end of that chapter and yes I do know that the Forbidden Hives were short, as was the battle with the Hive Queen but I really just couldn't come up with anything for them to continue.
Marie: Anyway we hope you've enjoyed and please do send in an O.C. if you've got one.