NOTE: This marks off the end of this Bee Arc. After this we'll be switching back into the Ben 10 side of things and introducing my favorite alien of the bunch.
Please enjoy the chapter and review.
Chapter 6: Bee Fest!(Part 3)
Inside of a small Card Shop stood Emi's elder brother, Aichi Sendou. The young man was card fighting one of his best friends and ex-teammate Kamui Katsuragi. Around them either doing their own things or watching the fight were their other friends.
"Yo, Aichi!"
Aichi turned towards the voice and saw his other friend Tashi Miwa sitting at the counter next to Misaki Tokura who was busy reading her book. Aichi paused his fight with Kamui to talk to Miwa.
"Yes, Miwa?" Aichi asked.
"How's things been with Emi and Mai off on their camping trip?" Miwa asked. His question gained the attention of the others as well. Aichi thought his answer over and smiled shyly.
"A little boring honestly. Emi would always be downstairs watching an anime with magical girls. She would copy the exaggerated movements from the characters, which always got a good laugh out of mom. Ah...wait, I probably shouldn't have told you guys about that. She'd get embarrassed if anyone mentions it," Aichi laughed.
Kamui blushed at the images popping into his head. "Maybe I could watch those shows with Ms. Emi. And I would get to see her doing those poses!" Kamui thought in his head. He cursed the fact that Emi had to go on a week-long camping trip. A week without seeing his beautiful angel was killing the poor boy.
Misaki chuckled at the thought of Emi being a magical girl. "I wonder how much fun Emi is having right now?" The lilac beauty wondered. She viewed Emi as a little sister, and always wanted to know if the girl was enjoying herself in her little adventures.
"I'm sure she's fine with Mai and Rekka with her. Emi's always been a fan of camping with the people you care about. They're probably just playing Vanguard like we are right now," Aichi guesses. There wasn't any reason for him to ever worry, Emi was a responsible girl after all.
Heatblast dodged another buzz stinger from an Attacker Bee. She responded back with another wave of heat that roasted the bee. Heatblast scrambled to her feet and ran to gain distance from the approaching Attacker Bees.
Firing a wave of heat towards the ground, Heatblast launched herself into the air. She gathered a ball of heat into her hands and threw it at the bees. The leading Bee responded back by launching it's buzz stinger at the fire ball. Both attacks collided, but sadly for Heatblast the buzz stinger cleaved right through the fire ball.
In a panic, Heatblast propelled herself higher into the air to avoid the stinger. That caused her to not notice one of the Bees shoot another stinger in her direction.
At the sound of the approaching buzz stinger, Heatblast extended her hand forward to launch another large blast of fire. Which incinerated the stinger and the Bee simultaneously. Heatblast descended back towards the ground and noticed the last remaining 3 Bees were fast approaching. Thinking quickly she pointed her hands backwards to propel herself towards them.
The three Bees saw Heatblast racing towards them, then shot their buzz stingers at her. In a spectacle that surprised Heatblast and the Bees, all three stingers started pulsating in red heat that reminded Heatblast of the laser blasts the robots shot at her.
Not wanting to take that attack head on, Heatblast flipped herself over the buzz stingers and whipped the biggest torrent of flames she's ever produced at the Bees. The torrent of flames were too fast for the panicking Bees to dodge in time, incinerating them instantly.
Heatblast allowed herself to relax and fell back towards the ground at the sound of the watch beeping. Heatblast hit the ground in a red flash of light, turning her back into Emi. The youngest Sendou layed on her back, exhausted from the fight. Breathing heavily, Emi slowly got up from the ground to sit on her rear.
"I should've brought a water bottle with me," Emi said as she tried to steady her heart. She observed the roasted bodies of the Bees around her, and crunched her face in disgust. Killing insects was a lot more disgusting when they're basically human sized. Emi gazed up at the larger doors that held the key to all of this madness. "Just gotta deal with the Queen. Hopefully Mai and Rekka are fairing fine," Emi said, making her way to the Queen.
In the Tatsunagi Building sat two beautiful young women who were both busy scrolling through a tablet and computer respectively.
The eldest one was Suiko Tatsunagi with short stunning blue hair who scrolled through her tablet with a sly smirk. Her deep blue eyes peered above the screen to her younger sister Kourin Tatsunagi.
Kourin let loose a small growl as she typed on the keyboard of her laptop. The blonde allowed a curse to escape her lips as her attempts to enter her password was denied once more. "Stupid Rekka, constantly messing with my things. Just as I finally got the free time to use it," Kourin sighed, annoyed.
Both of them had been busy with Idol work and school for the past couple of days and finally got the time to relax. Kourin shut her laptop and muttered more curses aimed at her younger sister. Suiko giggled at Kourin's spouts of anger, causing the blonde to turn her attention to Suiko.
"What's so funny, huh?" Kourin glared.
Suiko stopped her giggling and placed her tablet down on the table. Getting out of her chair, Suiko walked past Kourin to get to the kitchen. "Speaking of Rekka, how do you think she's doing? You know she's not much of an outdoors type of girl," Suiko brought up the topic as she made herself a cup of tea.
Kourin's fingers pushed a strand of hair out of her face, her emerald orbs looking outside of their glass walls. "I'm sure she's doing fine. She may be an annoying little brat, but she's stubborn enough to not give up easily. Besides, she has Aichi's little sister and friend with her to keep her out of trouble," Kourin said.
"Hm, speaking of Aichi...are you gonna confess to him soon?" Suiko hid her teasing smirk behind the cup of tea.
"SUIKO!" Kourin's face flushed in embarrassment.
"KEEP RUNNING, MAI!" Rekka shouted as she ran through the forest. Lagging behind her a bit was Mai, who was breathing heavily trying to keep up. Behind the two of them were Worker Bees who appeared to be aggravated.
Rekka looked behind her to see that Mai was starting to lose steam. The idol grabbed Mai's hand and jumped right into a pile of bushes. The Bees flew right past the girls in their blinded state of rage.
The girls allowed themselves to relax a bit, to steady their heartbeats. Rekka poked her head out of the bushes, seeing that the Bees were searching the trees and bushes for them. The idol lowered herself back into the bush and turned to look at Mai. She expected Mai to look tired, but she looked as if she was having a heart attack.
"What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We wasted most of our supply on the way here and those bees dodged most of our shots. What about Emi? Is she still alive? Did the Bees kill her? We're too far out to even hear her if she screamed. She could be injured or dying right now! Oh man...we're going to die out here! We're going to di-"
SLAP
Mai slowly lifted a hand up to her red cheek, tearing up from the stinging pain on her cheek. She turned to the one who had slapped her, eyes widening as Rekka glared at her.
Though Rekka allowed the glare to dissipate into a comforting gaze. Wrapping her arms around Mai's shaking frame. "I'm sorry for slapping you, but you were going into a panic attack and that's the last thing the two of us need right now."
Mai sniffed her clogged up nose and melted into Rekka's embrace. "I'm just so scared, Rekka. How are you not breaking down in fear right now?"
"I am freaking out right now. I've seen some crazy stuff, but giant killer bees kinda take their own spot in the freakiness chart. And then there's Emi's watch that turns her into 10 different monsters that has its own spot. But, if I were to break down from the fear then we'd just end up dead and so would Emi," Rekka broke their hug to look Mai directly in the eyes. The flower girl had stopped crying to listen to her friend.
"Mai, we're the only ones who know and can stop these things. We have to push past our fears to save our camp and the forest."
"B-But, we don't have many supplies left!"
"Hey! I still have 5 slime balloons left and you have 7 arrows left. We're facing a good number of 10 Bees, but we can't let that intimidate us. We'll do this together and go back up Emi, alright Mai?" Rekka gave Mai a reassuring look.
The flower girl gazed down at the bow in her shaking hands. A lot of things were riding on the three of them succeeding and a great number of things could end with their deaths. "But...I can't give up without seeing everything through. It's like Vanguard, I have to imagine ourselves winning this battle and going home safe and sound. And I'm not doing this alone either! Rekka and Emi are doing their parts too no matter how scared they may be." Mai reached back into her quiver and readied an arrow. Her face is equipped with a determined look to match Rekka's.
Smiling at her friend's courage, Rekka pulled another slime balloon out of her bag. They saw two Worker Bees buzzing above them and striked.
Rekka's balloon missed, but Mai's arrow struck home and exploded into green goop that covered both Bees. The other 8 Bees heard the commotion and looked above to see two of their brothers fall to the ground immobile.
Anger began to overtake them once more, redoubling their efforts to find the girls. However they missed a singular balloon falling towards one of them. By the time they realized another brother was trapped within slime.
Mai and Rekka had already moved to another pile of bushes while the Bees were distracted. The flower girl readied another shot and stuck down another Bee. She quickly hid back down into the bush as two more rushed over.
The idol threw two balloons at the unexpecting bees, taking them out of the fight. This had caused the Bees to become extra alert and fire rapid stingers in the direction the attacks were coming from.
The girls had no choice, but to reveal themselves to dodge the stingers flying at their location. Both were forced to split up, making the Bees split up as well as a result.
Three bees raced towards Mai's retreating back. Mai quickly circled around a tree, took aim and fired at one of the bees, taking it out of the fight. The 2nd gunned forward in rage and crashed into the surprised girl.
Mai rolled across the ground in pain from the impact. Once she regained her senses, she noticed both Bees gunning for her once more. Panicking she reached for her bow, only to find out that the bow had snapped in half from the blow. Making a hastened decision, Mai grabbed two arrows and eyeballed her throw. Even without the bow her aim proved true, covering both bees in slime.
Mai breathed heavily, disheartened by the loss of the bow. She grabbed the broken pieces and prepared to go find Rekka.
"MAAAAAAAIIIIII!"
"Rekka!? REKKA!"
Mai ran as fast as she could in the direction of Rekka's scream. Her eyes widen as she finds Rekka's shirt pinned to a tree by a single stinger, floating in front of the idol with killing intent was the last Worker Bee. The Bee's stinger pointed directly towards Rekka's face, ready to impale her through her skull. The idol was frozen in fear as her life started to flash before her eyes.
Mai didn't know what had came over her in that instant, maybe it was the adrenaline, but before she even knew it she was rushing towards the Bee with the broken bow in hand. Before the Bee could fire it's stinger, Mai had plunged the broken bow into it's large eye. Making the Bee fly around in agony as Mai repeatedly stabbed the Bee's eye and eventually the Bee dropped dead.
Rekka stared in shock at the panting Mai in front of her. Her clothes were covered in slime and Bee blood, but that didn't matter to Mai at the moment. All she cared about was making sure Rekka was safe and sound.
"Are you ok, Rekka?" Mai asked.
"I should be asking you that, Mai! You just killed a bee!" Rekka shouted.
"Yeah...Oh...y...yeah," Mai collapsed onto the ground at the realization of what she had just done. Rekka sighed at Mai's reaction, before giving her attention back to the stinger that had impaled her shirt.
"Ugh, this is going to suck," Rekka began tugging on her shirt to get loose.
Emi didn't know what to expect when she finally came face to face with the Queen of the Bees. The Queen was abnormally larger than the Bees she had been fighting earlier. Her body was also part mechanical like a cyborg. The large eyes were pitch black, but with a tint of red hidden within them.
"Ummm...hello?" Emi waved peacefully. Her greeting wasn't returned with kindness as the Queen's eyes turned bright red, and shot a laser beam without hesitation. Emi jumped out of the way and started running around the throne room to dodge the Queen's laser beams.
Emi slammed down on the watch's dial and expected to transform, but all she heard was a whirring noise. Her eyes widened at the sight of the watch still being red instead of green. "How are you not charged yet!? I kinda need you here!" Emi shouted as she ducked to dodge a blast aimed for her head. Emi tripped on a discarded root and tumbled to the ground.
Turning her head to look at the Queen, she saw the Queen preparing another laser beam shot. Acting quickly Emi grabbed a rock and chucked it directly into the Queen's eye.
"GRAAAYYYY!" The Queen cried out in pain and fell out of her throne. Emi smiled in satisfaction from her throw and looked back at the watch. It had turned from red to green right as she looked at it. Activating the watch, she turned the dial to XLR8(They named it in between chapters) and slammed down on it, enveloping the room in a green light.
When the light died down, Emi noticed that she wasn't XLR8, but that she had turned into something she didn't know yet. She had a black exterior with pink stripes that resemble circuitry all over her. A pink circle on her head to represent her eye. Her front torso was white with the watch's symbol on her chest.
"What the heck is this!? This isn't what I dialed!" Emi cried out, the circle on her face glowing as she talked.
WIIIIRRRRRYYYYY
Emi looked back at the Queen to see her standing on her flat legs, glaring at the creature in front of her. She shot another laser at Emi, making the girl panic in terror at the blast. However, she felt no pain as if the blast went through her. Emi looked down at her body to see a hole where her stomach was supposed to be. "Huh!? What happened to my body!?" Emi questioned. Suddenly her body morphed back to normal.
Another blast was shot towards her, Emi moved to dodge the blast. In response her body morphed into a liquid like state to avoid the laser beam. "Ok! This is really weird!" Emi yelled. Her liquified body bouncing around the throne room.
Grunting in frustration the Queen marched over to Emi in rage, her huge legs stomping down on the liquid-like girl. Much to her shock however, Emi's liquid-like body started to mesh itself with her. Slowly expanding all over her cyborg body.
Emi didn't know what was happening or how it was happening, but she felt herself becoming one with the Queen's cybernetic enhancements. As if this form allowed her to combine with machines.
"Mu...s… g-get….Om….trix."
"W-What was that? Who said that?" Emi asked, confused.
"I...did…"
Images started to flash within Emi's head. Images telling the events that led to these Bees becoming Killer Bees. The robots that she had fought, the bee collecting the pieces, the piece corrupting the Queen, and the Queen sending out the bees to kill her.
"All of this...is my fault?" Emi asked, stunned.
"Yessss...now hand over the Om...t-trix…"
"No!" Emi replied, heatedly. She felt horrible knowing that she's the reason the bees' normal lives were ruined. That she trampled on nature's cycle by leaving the remains of those robots left on the ground. But, that didn't mean that she was going to give up and let these Bees take her watch or kill everyone.
"I'm sorry that I caused this pain that you and your Hive went through. But, I can't allow this to continue anymore! I'm going to fix my mistake, by taking you down!" As if answering Emi's conviction her body began creating constructions through the use of the Queen's body.
"W-What...are….you doing!?"
"I'm going to destroy this Hive! Erasing it with the Queen's own hands!" Emi declared as cannons started to form from the cybernetic enhancements and fire at the walls of the Hive.
"NO! STOP!"
But, for Queen no longer had control over her own body and could only watch as all of the hard work done by her and her workers crumbled to bits at the hands of Emi.
Rekka carried the passed out Mai on her back as she walked through the forest to get back to Emi. Her clothes were tattered and the remnants of her shirt had barely stayed on her body when she unhooked herself. So, she used some of the slime to keep her shirt glued together as much as it painted her to do it.
"Nngh...huh?"
Rekka turned her head to see that Mai had stirred awake. "Wakey wakey sleepy head," Rekka teased.
"Rekka? What happened?" Mai asked.
"Well, let's see. After you passed out, I had to fix the remains of my clothes, and am I now carrying you on my back. We're on route back to Emi, though I'm not sure how much help we'd be," Rekka explained.
"Why did I pass out?"
"Ehhhh...it's better if you don't remember," Rekka didn't want her friend to pass out again.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Rekka stumbled at the loud vibrations that were coming from the clearing. She accidentally loosened her grip and dropped Mai onto the ground.
"Ow! Rekka, what was that?" Mai asked.
"I don't know, but we should hurry back to Emi," Rekka decided.
Getting back to her feet, Mai and Rekka sprinted towards the clearing.
When they arrived in the clearing both were shocked to find the massive Hive as nothing more than dirt and debris. In the middle of it all was a huge black, yellow, and pink Bee. Though a few seconds later the pink part of the Bee started melting off and puddled onto the ground.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
A red flash of light encompassed the area, then quickly died out as it came. Emi Sendou laid in the spot as the puddle, panting incredibly hard at what she'd just done.
"EMI!"
"Huh? REKKA! MAI!"
As if life had returned to her, Emi scrambled to her feet and rushed towards her friends. All three girls embraced each other as if their lives depended on it.
"I'm so glad you're safe!" They said, simultaneously. And laughed in unison at what they said.
FWOOSH
A strong gust of wind almost blew the girls over. They looked up into the sky to see that the Queen Bee was flying away from the forest.
As she flew away the Queen glanced back one more time at the trio, memorizing each one of their faces. Almost as if she planned to return to exact her revenge.
Emi frowned in sadness, knowing that she'd cause whatever pain the Queen is in right now. She didn't think about it longer as Rekka pulled them back into a group hug.
"We gotta celebrate, girls!" Rekka announced.
"Why?" Mai asked.
"Because! We just saved the day! Duh!" Rekka cheered.
"Hehe. Yeah, we saved the day! Good job, girls!" Emi joined Rekka's cheering. Mai was the only one who didn't as she stared back up into the sky and noticed something.
"Uhhh...girls?"
"What Mai? Aren't you gonna celebrate?" Rekka looked confused.
"N-No, because look! The sun is starting to set!" Mai pointed at the sky in distress. The revelation brought the other two back to reality.
They needed to return to camp before anyone realizes they're gone.
"EMI, HURRY AND TURN INTO SOMETHING!" Rekka screamed.
Emi tried to activate the watch, but it was still recharging. She threw her hands up in exasperation and started running.
"JUST RUN FOR IT!"
"Alright! Has everyone returned from the Scavenger Hunt?" A male teacher asked.
"Hmmm...seems we're missing one still," A female teacher answered.
"Huh? Which group is it? We can't start dinner without everyone here. Tell me, so I'll go search," He said.
"Seems like we're missing the Vanguard Clu-"
"WE'RE HERE!"
The shout gained the attention of everyone at the camp. All of the adults and students saw the Vanguard Club collapsed onto the ground dirty, exhausted, and ragged. The kids started whispering about what could've happened to those three. Even Kamiko looked a bit concerned at their state.
"Good lord! What happened to you three!?" The male teacher asked.
"Fell down a hill."
"Fell into a river."
"Attacked by animals."
The adults didn't know which story to believe, so they decided to cut the girls some slack. Since they're physical states were much more important at the moment.
"W-Well, go freshen yourselves up in the showers," The female teacher instructed. The girls nodded and slowly made their way into the cabin.
"Jeez, I didn't think something like that could've happened during a Scavenger Hunt. One student was attacked by a bear and those three looked like they experienced hell," The female teacher said.
"Yeah, I'm glad that tomorrow is the final day of this camp," The male teacher responded.
Emi froze in place as she heard those words.
"Camp ends tomorrow?"
Chapter End