Deadly Webs of Danger

Tyson, Ray, Hilary and Kai stared in awe at the person crossing that old, rotten log. She was a short, busty young woman with mocha skin and golden brown hair, wearing a green blouse and a long, flowing, pink wraparound skirt with an asymmetrical hem that almost completely exposed one leg. She had large flowers braided into her hair and smaller blossoms braided into bangles and anklets with feathers and bells. Aside from her clothes and accessories she didn't seem to be carrying anything else. Kai lost interest in her sudden appearance quickly but after him Ray was the first to break out of his reverie and call out to her.

"Hey! It's dangerous up there!" he said, gesturing to the log.

The woman turned her head and looked down, surprised to see them. She smiled at them warmly. "Why, hello trainers," she said in a demure voice. "Didn't expect to find any other humans this deep in the woods."

"Are we really that lost?" Hilary groaned.

The woman was standing in the middle of the log and it was visibly sagging beneath her weight. The group feared that it would snap beneath her. Before it could, she gracefully somersaulted off the log like a gymnast and landed safely in the soft-sanded creek, not minding the mud and sand getting into the hem of her skirt. The bladers and Hilary also noticed at this point that she wasn't wearing any shoes.

"Did you say you were lost?" she asked curiously.

"Unfortunately," Ray answered grimly.

"We're trying to get to Rustboro City," Tyson interjected quickly, "but we got separated from our friends so we're trying to find our own way out of here. Do you know how to get out of here?"

"Oh my, your voice…" the young woman murmured. "You sound stressed. Is there some emergency in Rustboro?"

"Not to our knowledge," Ray sighed. "There's just something we need to do in Rustboro City and it's urgent."

"Urgent, you say? Something I can help with?"

"I'm not sure. Have you seen a strange Porygon Z around these parts recently?"

"Porygon Z? No, afraid I have not," the woman said sadly, clasping her hands regretfully.

"Then do you know the way to Rustboro City, at least?" Tyson asked.

She perked up and smiled at them again. "I do!"

"Great! Can you take us there?"

"Well, yes…" she began slowly, "but can't go back there just yet. There's something that I've come to this forest to do as well. Happy to lead you to the city if you're willing to follow me somewhere else first."

"That's okay. We'll just find our own way out."

"Vetoed," Hilary sang.

"What gives?!"

"I'm vetoing that decision on the grounds that it is a stupid one," Hilary said, staying firm against the angry look Tyson was giving her. "Even if we have to go deeper into the woods for a little while it's smarter to stick with someone who knows what they're doing and where they're going."

"I second that," Ray said. "Kai, what about you?"

Kai just shrugged and responded with his usual non-committed grunt.

"I'm just going to assume that's a yes," said Hilary, giving him an incredulous look before turning back to the woman happily. "Nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Hilary and this is Ray, Tyson and Kai." Togepi cooed. "Oh, and there's Togepi too."

"Pleasure," the woman said, bowing gracefully. "My name is Flora."

Flora led them out of the gully, showing them the safest places to tread to avoid slipping back down. Despite not following any well-beaten trail, she seemed to know exactly where she was going. They came across old paths that had fallen into disuse and followed them.

"What did you come here for?" Kai piped up. The others looked at him in astonishment since the question was so out of the blue.

Flora just giggled. "Of course, since you're following me you should know. I'm looking for a special garden of sorts." She changed tone then, speaking in a hush, dramatic voice, "It is said that when the Pokémon of the Petalburg Woods want to evolve they suddenly sneak away to a special part of the woods so deep that no human will ever find it. Not only is it hidden, it is also fiercely guarded by the fabled Guardians of the Petalburg Woods."

Tyson, Ray and Hilary were enraptured by her tale. Kai just looked at her as if he didn't believe a word coming out of her mouth. Still, the reactions of the other three were encouraging enough for her to continue: "Nobody knows much about these guardians. Are they person or Pokémon? Fact or fiction? Some even suggest that they are unknown Legendary Pokémon watching over all aspects of the woods, not just the Pokémon. Whatever the answer may be – that is what I want to discover."

"Is that the only reason?" Kai asked with a deadpan tone.

"No, you're right," Flora replied. "Some time ago I caught a Pokémon in these woods. Recently he expressed that he would like to return here to evolve in the evolution garden that he heard so much about from his friends in the woods."

"Can you understand what your Pokémon says?" Hilary wondered. "Are you a Pokémon whisperer?"

That made Flora laugh. "Every trainer learns to understand the hearts of their Pokémon when they have a good bond." Suddenly she stopped and gasped. "Do you hear that?"

Hilary and the bladers all paused to look around. The quiet forest was disturbed by a low squeaky noise. Their voices had drowned it out before but it could now be heard clearly.

"It sounds like it's in trouble," Hilary said.

"You're right," Flora nodded. "Think I can hear where it's coming from. This way!"

Flora darted off the track and into the thick undergrowth. Tyson, Hilary and Ray didn't hesitate to follow her but Kai paused once he stepped into the ferns and looked up. A slithering reptile with monstrous red fangs coiled itself around a branch, looking down at him interestedly while beside it a red-eyed creature wrapped in lavender silk glared at him. He turned to follow the others before he lost them.

By the time he'd caught up to them they'd already stopped at a place that would make any arachnophobe wet themselves. Fine webs of silk stretched between many trees and branches, taking up all the space above the understorey. Little spiders crawled across the webs, although to the bladers they did not look little at all. They were bigger than tarantulas! They had six yellow and black striped legs and green bodies with smiley faces on their abdomens, which could have looked adorable but in the context of the fact that they were spiders they were actually quite creepy.

"Whoa, that's incredible!" Ray exclaimed, referring to the mega web crisscrossing the woods.

"It's just a bunch of spiders," Tyson said, pouting to try to look unimpressed.

"Spiders? What are you saying? These are Spinaraks," Flora corrected him. The little, squeaky cry was louder here and Flora searched the webs for the source. "But who's in trouble?"

"Spinaraks?" Ray echoed, taking out his Pokédex. "Are they Pokémon too?"

"Spinarak, the string spit Pokémon. The web it spins can be considered its second nervous system. It can determine its prey by the tiny vibrations it feels through the web.It lies in the same pose for days, waiting for its unsuspecting prey to wander close."

"We should get out of here," Kai suggested quickly. Togepi looked up at him and groaned. She wanted to look at the cool web a bit longer.

"Why? We just got here and we haven't found out where the noise is coming from," Tyson said.

"We just should," Kai snapped, looking tense and keeping a distance of about ten paces from the rest of the group.

"Not until we help whoever's in trouble," Flora asserted.

Hilary kept scanning the web back and forth. The cry didn't sound like a human's so she wasn't certain what she was looking for but then she spotted movement in the web.

"There it is!" she gasped, pointing to a creature stuck in the web. It was a red and white caterpillar with a yellow spike on its head and two on its tail. It was also enormous by the beybladers' standards – it was as big as a chihuahua – but an even bigger Spinarak was creeping towards it hungrily. She quickly called out Surskit and ordered him to use Bubble Beam, shooting at the Spinarak and shooting a hole through its web.

"Don't hurt the Pokémon!" Flora exclaimed worriedly. "They're just trying to live the only way they know how."

"But you want to save the caterpillar, don't you?" Hilary argued.

"What is a caterpillar? Did you mean Caterpie? But that's not even a Caterpie!"

"Then what the heck is it?"

"You don't know?"

Ray sighed and consulted his Pokédex again, determining that it was probably the quickest way to end this debate. "Wurmple, the worm Pokémon. It loves to eat leaves.Often targeted by bird Pokémon, it desperately resists by releasing poison from its tail spikes. Its feet are tipped with suction pads that allow it to cling to even the smoothest surfaces without slipping."

Hilary shrugged, at least now she knew what it was. She went right up to the web and peeled the Wurmple off but it was still wrapped up with a bit of silk. She almost dropped it when Kai suddenly barked at her:

"Leave it be!" His sudden outburst startled everyone else and they all jumped.

"Geez! What's your problem?" Hilary retorted. She turned back to the Wurmple she'd just rescued. "Don't worry, little guy. You're safe and sound now."

The Wurmple, being a wild creature, didn't understand a word of what she said. In its anxious distress it only saw another threat and did what it did best to protect itself. It swung its tail and pricked Hilary in the arm. She shrieked. Then it spat a stringy, gooey, white substance all over her face like silly string and she dropped it.

"You ungrateful little…!" Hilary seethed, ripping the sticky string off her face. "Surskit, use Water Pulse!"

"Wait!" Flora protested but it was too late and Surskit had already blown Wurmple into a tree trunk with his attack. Wurmple slowly and stickily tumbled down the trunk, sticking by virtue of the Spinarak silk and its little, round feet. "It's just scared…"

"That doesn't mean it has to attack me!"

"But it doesn't know what else to do."

"Just leave it already and let's go back to the path," Kai growled.

"Chill out," Tyson muttered, folding his arms and fixing Kai with an angry stare. "Seriously, what is up with you today? You seem on edge."

"I'm not!"

"Actually, you are," Ray supplied. "At least, it looks like it to me as well. Is something about the Wurmple bothering you?"

Kai sucked in a sharp breath while he scrambled for an excuse. "It… it turns into Dustox."

"Dustox?" Tyson repeated quizzically.

"Isn't that the giant moth Jamie has?" Hilary asked, looking to Ray. He nodded and contrary to the boys' expectations her eyes lit up. "Then I'm going to catch it!"

"No, don't," Kai said grumpily.

"Don't girls usually think bugs are gross?" Tyson asked as Hilary encapsulated it.

"Bugs aren't gross," Flora said.

"Why would you want the same Pokémon as him?" Ray inquired.

"It's not because it's the same as his," Hilary replied, picking up her Pokéball. "I just thought the moves it uses are kind of cool. It even looks cool."

"Just be careful when you let it out again," Flora told her. "Might still be scared."

"Don't we have other things we need to be doing?" Kai was starting to look impatient.

"He's right," Tyson said as if he'd just realised something. "Flora, let's hurry up and go find that garden thing of yours so we can move on to Rustboro City."

"But hang on," Ray interjected, "there are so many Spinarak here. Don't you want to—"

"No!" Kai snapped.

"Not even one?"

"No."

"You really are grumpier than usual, Kai. I'm getting really worried."

"Kai's just wised up to the fact that we have better things to do than stand around here catching bugs," Tyson said, going to stand next to Kai and patting him on the shoulder. Kai glowered at him and brushed his hand off.

"Whatever. Let's just leave."

He was about to turn and do just that when Hilary suddenly voiced an observation: "Come of think of it, Kai's been this jumpy before."

Kai glared at her but couldn't mask the panic behind it. Ray hummed thoughtfully. "I wouldn't have thought of 'jumpy' as a word to describe Kai but I think you're right. That's the best way to describe how he's acting."

"I'm not…" Kai began but Flora cut him off with:

"Oh dear, are you the kind who gets nervous around bug Pokémon?"

"No! It's—"

But he was cut off again by Hilary gasping and clicking her fingers. "That would explain a lot! Like that time you were hesitant to confront Jamie's Dustox—"

"That didn't happen."

"… And that time when Surskit freaked you out—"

"That didn't happen!"

Hilary giggled, ignoring Kai's protests. "He even tried to pass it off by saying that he just didn't like things that snuck up on him but all this time he was actually just afraid of bugs!"

"I am not afraid of bugs," Kai snarled through his teeth, giving her a positively withering glower.

A curious Spinarak swung down from the branches above them, hanging by Kai's shoulder and just out of his periphery. It reached out to touch him inquisitively with a spindly, hairy leg. Kai made a high-pitched, strangled noise and jerked away from the creature so violently that he actually threw Togepi into Tyson's arms. Jarred by the sudden movement, she began to bawl loudly. The sharp cries alarmed the Spinarak and it retreated back up its thread and into the trees. All of the other Spinaraks in the area followed suit, desperate to get away from the infernal noise. Tyson was too busy panicking about Togepi to worry about anything else, juggling her like a hot potato.

"Kai!" he yelled. "Do your mommy thing! Make her stop!"

Kai snatched his Pokémon back before Tyson could drop her. Even though he had her back, he realised he didn't know any tricks or 'mommy things' to make her stop. Simply being close to him wasn't going to do the trick this time. Luckily, Flora swooped in to save the day, lifting Togepi out of Kai's arms and rocking her like a baby while telling her sweet, motherly nothings. The gentle rhythm helped Togepi to quieten but when she looked up and saw that it wasn't her mama she squirmed and reached out to Kai, wailing quietly. Flora handed the baby Pokémon back and Kai took her, all the while staring distrustfully at Flora and wondering what magic she had just used.

"Aw, such a little sweetheart," she cooed, clasping her hands and gazing at Togepi with dewy-eyed affection as she peacefully settled down into her usual cradle.

"You seem to have a knack for handling Pokémon," Ray remarked, quite impressed. However, Hilary was laughing uproariously at Kai's expense.

"Not afraid of bug Pokémon, he says," she guffawed. "You jumped a foot in the air when that Spinarak touched you!"

"It snuck up on me," Kai ground out.

"But then it touched you and you were so freaked out because you knew it was a spider! Ahaha! Ohoo… hoo…"

The others all gasped in horror when they saw colour draining from Hilary's face and she began to sway, struggling to stay upright and keep her eyelids open. Ray caught her before she could collapse. Surskit scuttled around them to try to see what was wrong with his trainer.

"She's burning," Ray said, putting a hand to her forehead.

Flora suddenly gasped and put her hands over her mouth. "Oh no! We… I-I… should have checked." She lifted Hilary's arm and turned it over. The sting from Wurmple's tail spikes had already swelled and the flesh around it was blotched with a sickening palette of yellow, green and purple. "Poison. Do you have Pecha berries? Give her as many as she can eat!"

"We have plenty of those," Ray replied, looking down at Hilary. She was already losing consciousness. "But I don't think she'll get them down in this state."

"Then… then…" Flora stuttered, turning this way and that as she tried to think of what to do. "If we squeeze the juice into her mouth then she should still be able to swallow it, right?"

Ray and Tyson looked at each other uncertainly. While they started to debate that as a solution, Kai crouched to set down Togepi and his backpack. He unzipped the pocket he had set aside specifically for his medicines (he's organised like that) and took out a little kit that he'd bought at the Pokémart. Tyson noticed Kai's activity as he brought the kit over to the rest of the group and promptly asked him about it.

"I have an antidote," Kai answered.

"But that's a Pokémon medicine," Tyson rebutted. "Mari told us not to use those on people."

Kai gave him an annoyed look. "Don't you ever read instructions?" he snapped, opening the kit and showing them the contents. It contained a number of disposable hypodermic needles, a box to hold the used ones and two auto-injector syringes, one filled with an opaque burgundy serum and one filled with a more transparent yellow fluid. Kai pulled the yellow auto-injector out of its holding and waved it in front of them. "Pharmaceutical companies in this world clearly aren't stupid. If there's a danger of Pokémon getting poisoned then there's usually a chance that the trainers can also be poisoned. This is an antidote for use on humans."

He handed the kit to Tyson to hold while he attached a needle to the auto-injector. Tyson shied away from the apparatus, lest Kai succumb to a sudden madness and decide to jab it in him (it made sense in his head). "This will work faster than anything ingested and since it already looks bad we can't afford to waste any time."

He quickly injected the medicine into Hilary's arm. It only took one pump from the auto-injector and it was done. Kai packed up his antidote kit and snappily demanded: "Now can we get the fuck out of here?"

Luckily nobody was following his gaze because his eyes fleetingly glanced to the branches, where the Spinaraks were starting to warily climb down from their hiding spots and return to their webs.

The rest of the day's journey was slow going, even with Flora's guidance. Ray had to carry Hilary on his back while Tyson took his pack. Eventually they noticed it becoming so dark that they could barely even see each other and at that point they found a spot in the woods that was clear enough that they could all find a place to lie down. They fashioned a makeshift mattress for Hilary out of fern fronds so that she could be comfortable as Ray checked her condition. She was still feverish but the swelling around her poison wound had gone down.

"Such a powerful poison," he muttered to himself, "and it acted so quickly."

"But we gave her the human-antidote, so she should be fine, right?" Tyson asked, watching worryingly as Flora squeezed Pecha berry juice onto Hilary's lips

"The antidote does seem to have helped," Ray admitted. "But it's too dark to really see her condition. It could be that the poison has already reached a vital organ where it can do damage without much interference from the bloodstream or something. I don't know how venoms in this world work."

"What do we do?" Tyson asked, reaching over and patting empty space a few times before he found Hilary's leg and clutched it supportively. It really was terribly dark. "Is she going to die?"

"No, don't say that," Flora said in a hush voice. "If medicine isn't working then there's only one other thing we can do. We have to find the garden and a Pokémon that can heal her."

"Can a Pokémon heal someone even if they're this badly poisoned?" Ray asked.

"Yes… hopefully."

"Then let's go!" Tyson exclaimed, standing up quickly and falling down even quicker when he hit his head on an overhead branch that he had no idea was even there. Somewhere in their tiny camp they heard Kai sigh and Flora made a sympathetic mewling sound.

"It's way too dark to travel," Ray sighed. "Unless Flora has a sixth sense or an inhuman sense of smell."

"Sadly, neither," Flora giggled. "During the day I can navigate Petalburg Woods accurately but at night I am just as lost as you."

"Then we rest here a little while and at first light you'll take us straight to that evolution garden," Tyson declared, rubbing the sore spot on his head.

"I'll try."

"What do you mean you'll try? Don't you know where it is?"

Nobody could see it in the dark but Flora hung her head deeply and clenched her hands in her lap. "No."

"But we've been following you this whole time because we thought you knew where you were going!"

"I do! Somewhat… I can navigate if I have evidence to follow. Based on witness testimonies about the forest guardians, urban myths and information about the known regions of Petalburg Woods I have a very good idea where the secret garden probably is but I don't know for sure. Just an explorer really."

"It's better than nothing," Ray said calmly but he couldn't mask the displeasure in his tone.

However, there was nothing more to be done. The darkness was so heavy that they couldn't even see a hand placed in front of their faces and even with Tyson's Torchic available to light a fire they wouldn't, for fear of burning down the forest or attracting another poisonous Pokémon. They opted instead to try to sleep early and hoped to wake up with Hilary still alive.

In the midst of this was one forgotten little straggler, who had followed them all the way back from the Spinarak nest. Hilary's Surskit, who they had forgotten to return to his Pokéball, had nothing but worry for his trainer. He'd only known her for a few days but he was already beginning to feel his affection grow. A human might say that Hilary treated her Pokémon as pets rather than partners and the aces at the Gym would ridicule her babyish attitude towards her Pokémon when they thought nobody else could hear. But to Surskit there was no discernable difference in the way Hilary raised him compared to the more hardened trainers. Her feelings for him were the same as what other good trainers gave to their Pokémon.

Surskit knew that if Hilary really was as badly affected as Ray thought then they didn't have time to waste searching for a garden they didn't know the location of. He also understood that in these conditions the humans simply couldn't go on just yet. The humans may have no idea where the secret garden is but perhaps there was someone among them who did. When the trainers had all fallen asleep, Surskit rifled through Hilary's bag as best he could with spindly legs and no hands, looking for the occupied Pokéballs.

Having such skinny limbs made the task all that more difficult but Surskit finally managed to open Hilary's two other Pokéballs. He rolled them away from the camp so that the bright light wouldn't disturb the trainers. Ralts yawned and rubbed her eyes before looking around blearily. She could barely see her surroundings but she did manage discern the form of another Pokémon lying beside her tied up in Pokémon silk. He was wiggling and writhing to get out of the bindings but it was all in vain. Being such a sympathetic Pokémon, Ralts' first move was to reach for the struggling Wurmple. She could feel his panic, fear and despair with her psychic powers and wanted to help.

However, Surskit stopped her. He put one limb in front of her and shook his head. Ralts regarded him with confusion, exchanging glances between him and the Wurmple. This whole situation didn't make sense to her yet. It looked like this Wurmple had come out of a Pokéball as well, so that left the question of who the trainer was. Why were their own trainers at such a distance? Ralts could sense them dreaming several metres away but one of them (she couldn't quite tell who with her undeveloped powers) was having a nightmare. She also wondered why it seemed like they were holding this bug Pokémon hostage.

Wurmple was giving her a look of desperation and his emotions were pleading her to set him free but Surskit was glaring at him. In the short time that she'd known Surskit they had started to become good friends. He was a bit weird and quick to anger but he didn't seem the type to bully. She prodded him for his emotions. His anger was the first to surface, of course. That was a thick layer floating on top some more subtle colours: worry, desperation and determination. If she pushed deeper – at a risk of alerting Surskit to her prying – there was a dense core of something more compelling. Protectiveness. It seemed Wurmple had done something to something of his (or perhaps theirs). It was all the persuasion Ralts needed to spurn the Wurmple, at least for a while. Until she could get some answers out of one of them.

Pokémon communication is usually a complex and dynamic combination of emotional vocalisations and pantomime. Even between other Pokémon, contrary to the popular belief that Pokémon could talk with other Pokémon as easily as humans spoke to each other, regardless of species. Although it did still hold true that Pokémon of all species were far better at understanding the communication of any other species than a human was. It's very difficult to describe how a Pokémon handles complex discussions with others without the use of a handy thing like a common language. But if they could speak a common language as humans do, this conversation might sound something like this:

"Surskit, what's going on?" Ralts asked, leaning towards the blue bug while not taking her eyes off Wurmple. "Who is this?"

"I'm a friend, can't you tell!?" Wurmple cried. "Look at me, I'm helpless here! Just let me go back to being a regular guy in the woods."

"Don't," Surskit warned. "He poisoned Hilary and human-antidote isn't working like the trainers hoped it would."

"I damn well hope it isn't! Don't look down on Wurmples just because we're on the bottom of the food chain, you bastards! That'll teach you to mess with me!"

Ralts gasped and glared at Wurmple as well. "I have a right mind to just leave you here and see what befalls you!"

"I'd like to see that too," Surskit agreed, "but Hilary is in trouble and he's the only one here who can help. Tell us where the secret garden of evolution is."

"I'm not telling you Poképets nuthin'!" Wurmple blew a raspberry. "You trainer Pokémon! Think you're all high and mighty 'cuz you get powerful but you're nothing but caged, collared and neutered slaves to the humans."

"You're also one of us now, don't forget!"

"What is this 'secret garden of evolution' you speak of?" Ralts inquired.

"I'm not sure," Surskit admitted. "But the companion who joined them recently believes that if we go there a Pokémon will be able to heal her."

"I seem to be a lot more out of the loop than I previously thought. Why has this new companion joined and what happened to the others?"

"That's a much longer story, I'll explain later. Hilary is more important right now. So, Wurmple, tell us where to find the healer."

"No way! Why should I tell you anything, ya putzes?" Wurmple retorted.

"Hilary is in trouble and she needs your help!"

"No way I'm helping out a trainer! They pluck us from our homes at their whimsy. Trainers are no better than thieves and poachers!"

"Hilary is not a poacher!" Ralts cried. She'd seen poachers before. Although she was still too young to express it, she did know that there was a difference between a trainer and a poacher.

"Yeah right! And I still ain't going to show you suckers the way."

Surskit and Ralts exchanged glances. "What do we do?" Surskit wondered.

"I think there's only one way to resolve this fast enough," Ralts said, picking up Wurmple's Pokéball. "If you show us to the garden where the healer is, we'll release you."

"You will?"

"Whhaaatt!?" Surskit squeaked. "But Hilary really wanted Wurmple to come with us."

"This Wurmple is clearly set on being our enemy," Ralts sighed. "Hilary won't be happy that a potential new friend is gone but this is probably the only way to save her."

Wurmple glared hard at them for a while and made a thoughtful but high-pitched hum. He could choose freedom but then the whole forest would know that he betrayed them and led humans into their sacred place. Or he could choose captivity and hope that his trainer died soon. But what if she didn't? Or what if all of her Pokémon were simply passed on to another trainer? However, if he showed the way there was a chance that they would come and put a stop to the humans. Wurmple grumbled but finally agreed begrudgingly.

A/N: I'm getting all flustered because people are sending me reviews saying "sorry for the late review" and I'm sitting here sheepishly thinking "why are you sorry? I'm sorry for posting a late chapter!" Just a heads up that you should totally expect plenty more late chapters since I'm pretty busy with study atm.

I've always wanted to write Kai with an embarrassing quirk like that. Now my dream has come true.

Review, please?