Thanks to those who have reviewed so far, and to all my other readers too! I noticed that one of you pointed out that there was one evolution option Sera didn't consider in the previous chapter, and yeah, I guess I forgot to bring up that I originally wrote the chapter shortly before Sylveon was revealed. I probably won't use any Gen VI stuff in this story, since I find it might be a bit too difficult to incorporate into this particular story.
I do have some ideas for another PMD fanfic I may write when Gen VI is out and that I may put up whenever this story finishes.
Well, with that out of the way, here's chapter 12!
Chapter 12: It doesn't specify what the reward is, but since it's from a queen, I bet it's something good!
At some point during the night, while the Pokémon of Fenix Town were asleep, a Sigilyph appeared, observing the town from a distance. The Sigilyph snickered to himself, having heard the news about one of the missing crystals having been found by a rescue team.
"So… They found one of the crystals and destroyed that plant, huh?" the Sigilyph said to himself, snickering some more. "Well, I guess that'll just make things more interesting."
The Sigilyph's fork-like wings fluttered as it hovered back and forth while thinking about what exactly he had heard about how the crystal was found.
"Apparently, the town oracle helped that rescue team locate the crystal," the Sigilyph said, thinking for a moment. "Cassandra's great, great granddaughter, I presume."
The Sigilyph snickered some more, his eye flashing with purple light for a moment.
"I should definitely think of a way to punish her…"
The strange bird Pokémon seemed to feel something, as it glanced down at the town below.
"What's this? I feel a familiar presence… Is that little brat that prevented me from getting all eight crystals in this town too?"
The Sigilyph glared at the town below for a moment, before snickering some more.
"Well, I guess I'll also have to think of a way to get back at that one as well for meddling in my plans…"
The next day, it was raining in Fenix Town. The rain seemed to put the water type Pokémon of town in high spirits, while the fire types weren't as happy. Mirage and her two teammates were at River's café, getting something to drink while reading today's newspaper. Megara was looking out a window with a rather annoyed look on her face.
"Stupid rain…" Megara muttered.
"The mushroom does not mind the rain," Cordyceps said, causing Megara to turn her head to look at him. "Besides, you did bring an umbrella. The mushroom advices you not to set it on fire like you did with the last one."
"As if this cheap thing will protect me from the rain," Megara said, holding up an umbrella made of a stick and some big leaves. "You really should've given me enough money to buy a better one, Mirage!"
"Well, maybe if you were a little better at saving up your share of the money from our missions or you hadn't burned up your last one, you wouldn't have this problem," Mirage replied.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Megara asked, sounding rather annoyed.
"Whoa, relax," Mirage responded, offering Megara the newspaper. "Here, maybe reading this will help you get your mind off the rain. There are some interesting things here today."
"Have they made any progress with the crystal search?" Megara asked.
"Not much," Mirage replied. "But check this out; it's an article about a Salamence that was raised by Purrloin."
"How is that supposed to get me in a better mood?" Megara asked, as Sera, Blitz and Chiaki stepped inside the café. "Oh, look. More rescue teams trying to escape the rain."
"Hi," Sera said, as she shook the rain water out of her wet fur.
"Hey, don't do that!" Megara shouted. "You'll get water all over the place!"
"Sorry," Sera replied, her fur having puffed up from being shaken dry. "I guess another advantage to being a Vaporeon would be that you never have to worry about wet fur."
"You look even fluffier than usual now!" Chiaki commented, chuckling a bit.
"I hope it doesn't rain for too long," Blitz said, glancing at the rain outside. "We should be trying to get some missions done today."
"Hey, at least it's just a little rain," Mirage responded, showing the younger rescue team the newspaper. "According to this, there have been some very harsh sandstorms over in Clarion Desert for several days now."
"Is that so?" Megara asked in a somewhat bored tone.
"Yeah," Mirage replied, pointing to the article. "Says here the sandstorms are so rough, that it's pretty much impossible to get through them."
"Meh, they'll have to stop eventually," Megara responded, resting her head on her arms.
"Mirage has a point, the weather could've been much worse," Sera commented, glancing over at Blitz. "So why should we let this rain delay us?"
"Yeah, it's not even raining that much!" Azure said, having overheard the conversation.
"I guess if none of us minds getting our fur wet…" Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. "Then there's no reason we can't head out right away."
"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Sera said, grinning. "Let's go!"
"Ooh, can I come too?" Azure asked, bouncing over to the rescue team. "The rain has put me in an adventuring mood!"
"But Azure, you promised to help out in the café today," River said, looking over at her daughter. "Did you forget about that?"
"Oh, I'll come back and help out later!" Azure responded. "Please let me go adventuring with Sera and her team!"
"I probably shouldn't be encouraging this," River replied, sighing. "But, okay. I'll let you go."
"Thank you!" Azure responded, happily bouncing on her tail.
"Well, let's go!" Sera said, and so the four Pokémon headed out.
"Azure sure takes after her father," River commented, as she resumed her work.
Mirage glanced out the window as Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure were starting to head over to the rescue team HQ, before turning back to her teammates.
"Come on, Megara," she said, looking over at the still annoyed Magmar. "Surely we shouldn't let the rain stop us from getting our job done? Let's follow that other rescue team's example, and head out!"
"No," Megara responded.
"But odds are that it's not even raining inside the mystery dungeons!"
"The answer is still no."
At the rescue team HQ, Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure began checking out the available missions on the boards. However, while the rescue team considered several of the missions, Azure didn't seem particularly interested in any of them and instead wandered over to the board with the outlaw missions.
"Hmm… I bet we could easily beat one of these guys," Azure commented while looking over the wanted posters.
"Azure, I don't think your mother would approve of us taking you on that kind of mission," Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together nervously. "Plus, this rescue team has only done one outlaw mission, and the outlaw in question wasn't even really an outlaw!"
"Then isn't it about time you guys go on another one of these missions?" Azure asked, winking at the three.
"When she says it like that, it does seem like a good point," Chiaki cheerfully replied.
"I guess we can take a look at the missions, at least," Sera said, and walked up to Azure along with Chiaki.
"Oh, o-okay…" Blitz said, walking over to the others. "But if you have to do an outlaw mission, at least pick one that doesn't look too strong…"
"What about that one at the top right corner?" Azure asked, glancing up at a wanted poster depicting a Pokémon resembling a large purple scorpion. "He doesn't look too tough."
"You mean that Drapion up there!?" Blitz responded, seeming rather intimidated by the appearance of the scorpion outlaw. "We can't fight that!"
"You're really scared of him?" Azure asked, glancing up at the wanted poster with a confident smirk. "He's just a big purple accordion! There's nothing to be afraid of!"
"Azure, I think Blitz is right," Sera responded, reading the mission rank on the poster. "This guy is way too tough for a Bronze rank team like us."
"Oh, fine," Azure replied. "But I still think we could've taken him."
"What about this one?" Chiaki asked, pointing to a mission on the lower left corner of the board. "Apparently someone called Queen Miele from a place called Nectar Woods needs help dealing with some honey thieves!"
"Isn't Nectar Woods where the honey we use at the café is from?" Azure said, looking over at the mission. "This queen must be the one in charge of the Combee that makes that honey."
"This mission looks good to me," Sera commented, looking over the mission. "It doesn't specify what the reward is, but since it's from a queen, I bet it's something good!"
"I guess this mission doesn't look too difficult for a rescue team at our level…" Blitz said.
"So, we're all in!" Azure shouted, bouncing happily. "Let's go, everyone!"
And so the four Pokémon headed into Kala's room to teleport over to Nectar Woods, as a certain Beedrill who had been waiting for one of his teammates outside nurse Giselle's office glanced over at them, having overheard part of their conversation.
"Queen Miele?" Sting said to himself, glancing down and twiddling the stingers on his arms. "I wonder how she's been…"
In a flash of light, the four Pokémon appeared in Nectar Woods. According to the map, it was smaller than some of the other forests they had explored and it was mostly populated by bug type Pokémon. Some spider webs were visible in trees, which had a lot of berries growing on them as well. Some of the trees also had sap leaking out of them, which several of the bug Pokémon probably enjoyed.
"Whoa, this place is pretty!" Chiaki exclaimed, grinning.
"So, where do we begin?" Sera asked, looking around.
"I guess we should find that Vespiquen…" Blitz said, glancing around.
"Oh, right!" Sera responded.
"Where do we find her, though?" Azure asked, standing on top of the ball at the tip of her tail, looking around.
"Maybe we can ask them?" Chiaki said, pointing to some green spider Pokémon that were busy making a new web. "Hello, Spinarak?"
"What do you want?" one of the Spinarak asked. "Can't you see we're busy?"
"We are trying to make this new design more fabulous than any spider web you've ever seen!" one of the other Spinarak said, crawling around the web. "This'll certainly show those Joltik who makes the best spider webs around here!"
"Oh, okay," Chiaki responded, giving the spider Pokémon a friendly smile. "Good luck!"
"I wonder if there's anyone else we can ask…" Blitz wondered out loud, before picking up on a sound which seemed to be getting closer to them. "Uh, guys? Do any of you hear a buzzing sound?"
The other three glanced around, before two Beedrill appeared and hovered over to them. Both Beedrill were wearing hats made from leaves with holes for their antennae to stick out, and matching shawls. Chiaki couldn't help but stare at the hats, and quietly thought about how he wanted to try on one of those hats.
"Oh, hello," Sera said, looking up at the two Beedrill. "May I help you?"
"We are royal guard Beedrill working for Queen Miele," one of the two Beedrill said, curiously examining the four Pokémon. "Are you a rescue team?"
"Oh, yes we are!" Sera responded. "We saw the mission your queen sent, and came to help deal with the honey thieves!"
"Excellent," the Beedrill said. "Follow us; we'll escort you to her."
The two royal guard Beedrill lead the rescue team to a large tree with an opening in it. Inside was the honeycomb where Queen Miele and many Combee lived. The rescue team could see many of the Combee flying around, the wings on each side of their honeycomb-like bodies giving off a buzzing sound as they fluttered. Each was focused on the tasks they had been assigned, and so they didn't pay much attention to the visitors.
"Whoa, this place is awesome!" Chiaki said, grinning as he stared in awe.
A slightly different buzzing sound was heard, as a large queen bee with a dress-like body, including a honeycomb-shaped skirt around her abdomen.
"You must be the rescue team that accepted the mission I sent out," the Vespiquen said, looking at them with her red eyes. "I am Queen Miele; it is a pleasure to meet you."
"Hi!" Chiaki responded, happily waving at the Vespiquen. "I'm Chiaki!"
"H-Hi…" Sera said, nervously smiling. "My name is Serafina, but most people just call me Sera…"
"It is an honor to meet you," Blitz said, bowing down to the Vespiquen. "I am Blitz."
"And I'm Azure," Azure said, glancing around. "So, um… You're like, the queen of this forest?"
"Why, yes," Queen Miele responded, nodding her head slightly. "While my main duty is to lead the Combee, I also try to find ways to make sure the Pokémon of Nectar Woods are happy."
"It is admirable that you care for the wellbeing of all Pokémon in your territory," Blitz said, still bowing down to the Vespiquen. "I bet your pride, I mean, swarm, all look up to you."
"Why, thank you for the compliment!" Queen Miele responded, seeming flattered. "And yes, I can tell through the hive mind I've formed with the Combee that they love me very much."
"Hive mind?" Sera inquired. "As in, you're connected to and can control what they think?"
"Not exactly," Queen Miele responded. "Yes, we are connected, but I wouldn't go as far as to decide for them what they should think and feel. They're all individuals, after all."
"Yes! We are all individuals!" replied every single Combee in the hive in unison.
"Plus, it has some advantages, such as being able to receive information faster," Queen Miele explained. "In fact one of the Combee has identified one of the honey thieves as a Butterfree, a female one judging by the black spots on the lower part of its wings."
"So, we need to keep an eye out for a female Butterfree?" Sera asked.
"Yes," Queen Miele responded. "She was pretty fast too, as she managed to flee before any of the Combee could stop her."
"Okay, we'll keep that in mind," Sera replied. "Shame we didn't bring any Quick Orbs or anything for this, though…"
"Well, at least we now have at least one lead to go on," Azure commented, bouncing a little.
"There's a mystery dungeon in this forest, right?" Blitz asked, looking up at the queen.
"Why, yes," Queen Miele responded. "It is not far from here, actually."
"Okay, we'll go investigate there," Blitz replied, looking over at this teammates. "Odds are the Butterfree and anyone working with her are hiding somewhere within."
The four Pokémon walked up to the entrance of the dungeon, where they believed the honey thieves might be hiding. After quickly checking their inventory, they headed inside the mystery dungeon. A maze of berry trees appeared before them, Chiaki staring in awe at the different colors of the leaves of the different types of berry tree.
"So, how far into the dungeon do you think these guys went?" Azure asked, balancing on one foot on top of her tail.
"I'd assume we'll find them at the very end of the dungeon," Sera responded, glancing over at Blitz to make sure they were following the same line of thought. "Don't you think?"
"Yeah, most likely," Blitz replied.
"All right," Sera said, looking around to see which path to follow. "Let's get going, then!"
Sera began walking down on of the paths, followed by Blitz, Chiaki and Azure. The dungeon was at ten floors, and mostly inhabited by bug type Pokémon. There seemed to be more berries than usual to be found on the ground within the dungeon, possibly due to the presence of the berry trees.
"So, what kind of Pokémon do you think is working with the Butterfree?" Azure asked, looking around for wild Pokémon to fight.
"Pokémon that like honey, I guess," Sera responded, sniffing the air.
"Teddiursa like honey," Blitz said, glancing around. "Another bug or a grass type Pokémon may also be involved."
"I like this place," Chiaki commented. "It's so pretty!"
"Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen this many different berry trees in one place," Azure said, looking around. "I wonder if the café has berries imported from here too."
"I'm not sure if there's enough space in our treasure bag to gather all these berries," Sera commented, checking the current contents of the bag.
"Guess we'll just do this, then!" Chiaki said, picking up a Pecha berry from the ground and popping it into his mouth.
"Or we can just leave them there on the ground," Sera responded, giggling a little. "But your method works too."
The four Pokémon made their way through the dungeon, exploring, fighting some bug Pokémon along the way and so on, until they finally reached the stairs leading up to the final floor. So far, they hadn't seen any signs of the honey thieves. Blitz just hoped that his feeling about the thieves hiding out at the end of the dungeon was correct, or else they'd have gone all that way for nothing. As he followed behind Sera as she walked up the stairs, Blitz thought he could faintly hear some voices coming from the floor above.
"Anyone else hear that?" Blitz asked, looking around as they walked up to the floor at the end of the dungeon.
"Yeah, I do," Sera responded. "Think it's the honey thieves?"
"Let's find out," Blitz said, slowly starting to make his way down the path. "The voices seem to be coming from further in."
The rescue team and Azure quietly moved ahead, hoping the honey thieves wouldn't hear them and run away. They soon spotted the white butterfly wings of a Butterfree, with black spots on the lower wings as Queen Miele described. There were two other Pokémon with her; a light brown bear cub with a crescent shaped spot on its forehead and a Pokémon with pink cherry blossom petals seeming to form a dress covering its body and five cherry blossom petals on its head.
"This honey is really great!" the Teddiursa said, happily licking some honey of his paws.
"Won't we get in trouble with the queen for taking honey without permission?" the Cherrim asked, sipping some honey.
"Relax, there's plenty of honey there," the Butterfree responded. "Besides, we won't get in trouble if we don't get caught."
"That's what you think!" Azure shouted, getting the attention of the three honey thieves.
"Azure, what are you doing?" Blitz asked, looking a bit startled. "We were trying to sneak up on them!"
"… Okay, now we're in trouble," the Butterfree said.
"A rescue team!" the Cherrim exclaimed, looking rather frightened. "Oh, this can't end well!"
"Now, let's not panic…" the Butterfree responded, trying to think of a solution. "They don't look too tough… We could probably beat them in a battle."
"A battle?" the Teddiursa asked, exchanging concerned glances with the Cherrim.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the Cherrim asked.
"We accept your challenge!" Azure shouted, pounding her tail against the ground. "You are going down!"
"Azure, you're not really a member of our rescue team, so you shouldn't really be the one accepting challenges on our behalf…" Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together.
"Well, if we're going to fight, let's get ready!" Sera shouted, while using her Helping Hand move to power up her teammates.
"So, you're powering up?" the Cherrim asked, smirking. "Well, two can play at that game!"
The Cherrim twirled around, a ball of light forming between her hands. She spun around once more before releasing the ball of light and letting it fly up into the air. The sun's rays intensified, making the petals on the Cherrim's body glow with a soft pink glow.
"So, your Flower Gift ability is giving us a power boost now?" the Butterfree asked.
"Yes," the Cherrim responded. "Want me to add my own Helping Hand to that?"
"Nah, I don't think that'll be necessary," the Butterfree replied, while dodging a spray of bubbles aimed at her by Azure.
"Fury Swipes!" the Teddiursa shouted, charging at Azure and attempting to strike her with his paws. However, Azure simply swung her tail around and knocked the Teddiursa aside.
"You know, saying what attacks you're going to use out loud kind of makes it easier for the opponent to avoid it," Azure commented, looking unimpressed.
"Well, you can't dodge this!" the Cherrim shouted, twirling around and sending several glowing multicolored leaves flying at Azure.
Azure attempted to bounce away from the leaves, but found that the leaves kept following her. Quickly figuring out that she couldn't avoid the Cherrim's Magical Leaf attack, Azure settled for swinging the ball on her tail into the path of the attack and letting it take the hit so she'd at least take as little damage from the attack as possible.
The Teddiursa had gotten back on his feet, and was now fighting against Chiaki. While Chiaki seemed to be able to dodge the Teddiursa's attacks without much difficulty, the Teddiursa wasn't as good at paying attention to the opponent's movements.
Sera and Blitz were charging at the Butterfree, hoping to hit her with their combined attacks, but the butterfly Pokémon simply moved out of the way. Sera and Blitz made another attempt, but the Butterfree dodged their attack again.
"She really is fast…" Sera commented, looking over at Blitz. "What do we do?"
"Hmm… I'll try to think of something," Blitz responded. "For now, let's focus on the other two."
The Cherrim continued using her Magical Leaf attack on her opponents, not doing much else. Since it was an attack that would always hit opponents and she could keep using it from a distance, why use anything else? That way, her opponents that seemed to mostly rely on physical attacks that required them to get up close to attack couldn't reach her. It certainly seemed like a good idea to her.
The Teddiursa wasn't having as much luck as his teammates, as he himself only knew attacks that he had to get up close to use. The Teddiursa nervously took a few steps back from Chiaki, unsure of what to do. Before he could decide on his next move, Azure slammed her tail against him with enough force to send him flying through the air for a few moments.
"Ah, I give up!" the Teddiursa shouted as he hit the ground, whimpering a little as he looked up at the rescue team. "I won't steal honey anymore! Tell the queen I'm sorry!"
"Well, that's one down," Azure said, using her tail to take another Magical Leaf attack from the Cherrim. "We've still got to do something about those other two, though."
Blitz and Sera ran as a Magical Leaf attack followed them, trying to figure out how to get the Cherrim to stop her attacks so they could get close enough to fight back.
"Blitz, can't you use your Ice or Fire Fang attacks against her?" Sera asked.
"You know I can't do that," Blitz responded, charging up electricity to power up his electricity and build up his special defense against the Cherrim's and Butterfree's attacks.
"Not even just this once?" Sera asked, nervously glancing at the glowing leaves following them.
Seeing as the two were too occupied running from the Magical Leaf attack while they at the same time were having a conversation, the Butterfree decided to take this opportunity to whip up a gust of wind by flapping her wings hard enough. The wind attack quickly tripped up Sera and Blitz, and allowed the Magical Leaf attack from the Cherrim to connect.
"Oh, you're not getting away with that!" Azure shouted as she and Chiaki charged at the Butterfree, but the butterfly Pokémon simply turned around and whipped up another Gust to slow them down.
"Sera, you okay?" Blitz asked, looking over at his teammate as he got back onto his feet.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Sera responded, getting up and shaking some dust out of her fur. "Blitz, if you won't use your Ice or Fire Fang to directly attack, can't you use it some other way? They're our only moves that will be super effective against that Cherrim, you know."
"Use them some other way…?" Blitz replied, taking a moment to think about it.
Chiaki and Azure did their best to guard against the Magical Leaf and Gust attacks thrown at them. While the Magical Leaf didn't bother him too much, the Gust attacks were quickly wearing Chiaki out as the flying attacks were super effective against him.
"You'd better think of something fast," Sera said, watching their teammates. "I'm not sure how long Chiaki can stand up against those Gust attacks."
"I think I have an idea…" Blitz responded, looking around for something. "I just have to find something I can use…"
Blitz glanced around, until he spotted a branch with a few dead leaves still on it lying on the ground. He quickly ran over to and picked up the branch with his mouth, and began moving towards the Cherrim, waiting for just the right moment to make his move.
The Cherrim continued throwing her Magical Leaf attack around; until Chiaki realized that he did have a way of dodging her attacks, and caught the Cherrim off-guard by using Detect to successfully avoid the glowing leaves. Blitz took this opportunity to use Fire Fang to set the branch he was holding on fire, and fling it at the Cherrim, making sure it would land where there weren't anything the fire could spread through around it.
The Cherrim gave a startled yell, and tried to back away from the branch, at which point she got hit by Chiaki's Fake Out attack, followed by Azure using Slam to send her flying in the direction of Blitz and Sera, so they could follow it up with their combined Tackle attacks.
"Okay, I give up…" the Cherrim said, dazed from all the attacks she had just taken.
With the Cherrim and Teddiursa having surrendered, there was now just the Butterfree left to deal with. While she was still faster than the four of them, the butterfly Pokémon was starting to look rather nervous, realizing her opponents had the upper hand now. However, she quickly regained her composure.
"Perhaps I underestimated you…" the Butterfree said, before flapping her wings fast enough to blow her opponents away. "But you still won't be able to catch me!"
As the Whirlwind attack pushed the rescue team back quite a bit, the Butterfree attempted to flee, flying towards the nearest exit to the mystery dungeon. Once the winds calmed down, the rescue team chased after the Butterfree. The Butterfree made it out of the dungeon with the rescue team still in pursuit, but she was feeling pretty certain that she would be able to escape them now, as she still had a good lead.
She glanced back for just a moment to make sure they were too far behind to catch up, only to suddenly find herself colliding with and getting stuck in a large spider web.
"Hey! What was that just now?" a tiny yellow spider Pokémon said, feeling the spider web it was working on with the other Joltik shaking. "Is someone messing with our art?"
"Strange, some Butterfree appears to have gotten stuck in our web," another Joltik said, watching the struggling butterfly Pokémon with its four blue eyes.
"Well, she's not part of our masterpiece; get her out she breaks it!" one of the other Joltik shouted.
With that, several of the Joltik crawled on over and surrounded the Butterfree trapped at the center of the web, before hitting the strings of the web with a bolt of electricity, zapping the trapped butterfly Pokémon for super effective damage. The Butterfree was knocked out by the attack, her wings twitching slightly from the electricity. The Joltik then carefully made it so she'd fall out of the web without damaging their work of art.
The rescue team was quick to pick up the unconscious butterfly Pokémon as she hit the ground, and the Joltik resumed working on the spider web, talking about how their newest design would surely beat whatever the Spinarak were going to come up with and prove once and for all that the Joltik were the greatest artists in Nectar Woods.
"Well, guess that's mission accomplished!" Sera said, wagging her tail happily. "Let's take the honey thieves back to the queen."
"Thanks, Joltik!" Chiaki said, cheerfully waving at the Joltik as he helped his teammates carry the unconscious Butterfree away.
The Joltik didn't seem to hear Chiaki, nor did they care what he had to say as they were all too focused on making their spider web the most fabulous spider web in the forest.
The rescue team brought the honey thieves back to the honeycomb, where Queen Miele gave the honey thieves a chance to explain themselves, before taking a few moments to try to think of a punishment for them. After discussing it with some Combee, she finally thought of something.
"I want the three of you to gather some flowers for us," Queen Miele said, while motioning for a Combee to bring her something.
"Is that it?" the Butterfree asked, tilting her head slightly. "That doesn't sound too difficult."
"However, the flowers we want you to get for us are ones not normally found in Nectar Woods," Queen Miele responded, as the Combee returned with some paper and something she could write with. "I'll give you a list of which flowers we want, and where they can be found."
Queen Miele quietly wrote something down, before handing the directions to the Teddiursa, who held it up for his teammates to see.
"Some of the names of the places these flowers can be found sound kind of scary…" the Cherrim commented. "And what is this about a Venusaur?"
"Oh, there's a kind of old and grumpy Venusaur in one of the areas that doesn't particularly like sharing the flowers in that meadow with others," Queen Miele explained, to which the honey thieves exchanged concerned glances. "… Good luck with that!"
"… Well, let's get going," the Butterfree said to her teammates, and so the three headed out.
"You sure I didn't go too hard on them?" Queen Miele asked one of the Combee. "Should we ask some of the royal guard Beedrill to follow them and make sure they don't get into too much trouble?"
"They'll probably do fine!" Chiaki said with a cheerful smile. "They were pretty tough to beat during the battle we had earlier!"
"If you say so," Queen Miele responded, giving Chiaki a friendly look. "Anyways, I would like to thank the four of you for dealing with my problem, and for your reward, you will each receive a week's supply of honey!"
"Uh, thanks…" Sera responded, seeming a bit unsure what exactly she would do with this reward.
"Ooh, I bet Hercules would like that," Blitz commented. "I should share that with him."
"We can probably use this at the café!" Azure said, bouncing a little.
While Chiaki tried to think of something fun he could do with a week's supply of honey, a familiar buzzing sound suddenly caught his attention.
"Queen, there's a visitor here for you," one of the royal guard Beedrill said, as a certain other Beedrill stepped forward.
"Sting, is that you?" Miele asked, seeming pleasantly surprised.
"Hi," Sting responded, shyly twiddling the stingers on his arms. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Huh? You two know each other?" Sera asked, looking back and forth between the queen and the rescue team leader.
"I grew up here in Nectar Woods," Sting explained. "Miele and I were really good friends when we were younger."
"Wow, never knew you were friends with royalty," Sera commented. "I'm impressed."
"Oh, it's no big deal…" Sting responded, still twiddling his stingers. "So, you helped Miele out with a problem today?"
"We certainly did!" Sera replied, wagging her tail happily. "But, I guess it's time the four of us head back to town. Plus, that way you and Miele can talk privately."
"Uh, thanks…" Sting responded, watching as the rescue team began heading out.
"Have fun!" Azure said, turning back and winking at the Beedrill, before bouncing after the rescue team.
"What was that all about…?" Sting muttered, seeming a bit embarrassed. Queen Miele seemed mildly amused, though.
"I'll ask the Combee to prepare some pollen punch for us," Miele said, flying over to Sting and carefully held the stingers on his arms. "And perhaps you could tell me about your experiences as the leader of a rescue team?"
"Oh, sure," Sting replied, buzzing happily. "I'd like that."
As Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure began heading back to town, some royal guard Beedrill following behind to help carry the honey Queen Miele had rewarded them with, they came across the artistic Spinarak once more. The Spinarak seemed rather frustrated about something.
"It's no use, it won't stick!" one of the Spinarak shouted. "We can't complete our design like this!"
"Let's move to another part of the forest and start over!" one of the other Spinarak replied.
"We can't just do that!" another Spinarak shouted. "There's no way we'll find another location ideal for our design at such short notice!"
"Do we come up with another design?" another Spinarak asked uncertainly.
"Um, excuse me?" Sera said, getting the Spinarak's attention. "What's going on here?"
"We can't finish our design because that branch up there won't co-operate with us!" a Spinarak explained, glancing towards the branch in question.
Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure looked up at the branch, and were shocked to see that part of the branch seemed to be rapidly flickering in and out of existence.
"What is that? Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.
"I think we might be looking at a distortion caused by the crystals' absence at Axis Tower…" Blitz responded, shivering a little.
"That can't be good…" Sera commented, her ears drooping down a bit. "I hope those other crystals are found soon…"
After the rescue team made their way back to town and went home for the evening, Sting still remained at the honeycomb, telling Miele about the missions he and his teammates had been on during the past few months.
"... And that's when Melody had the idea of basically turning herself into an improvised raft by inflating herself and letting the kids ride her down the river, while Frosty and I followed behind and helped keep the wild Pokémon chasing after us away from them," Sting explained.
"My, it sounds like you have a lot of exciting adventures, don't you?" Miele asked.
"Yeah," Sting responded. "It comes with being a rescue team leader."
"And you get to help so many Pokémon," Miele said, gazing into Sting's eyes. "It is nice to hear that you've been doing so well in Fenix Town."
"Thanks," Sting responded, meeting her gaze. "I'm glad to see that you're doing well too."
"Hey, Sting? Do you ever think about that offer I once gave you?" Miele asked. "You know, about becoming one of my royal guards?"
"Oh, well… Kind of," Sting responded, twiddling the stingers on his arms.
"But I assume you haven't changed your mind?" Miele asked, placing her hand on his arm-stinger.
"Yeah," Sting responded. "While you may belong here in Nectar Woods, I have found my place in Fenix Town, as a rescue team leader."
"I understand," Miele replied, nodding slightly. "I just miss you, you know. You were my first true friend, after all."
"I've missed you too," Sting said. "I remember the time I was a Kakuna, waiting to evolve and emerge a Beedrill. Even though you had to learn many things in preparation of your own evolution and coronation, you still took the time to come see me whenever you could."
"Of course I did," Miele replied. "No one else understood me the way you did."
The two bug Pokémon gazed fondly into each other's eyes for a moment, before looking away, noticing it was getting dark outside.
"It's getting late," Miele said, letting go of the stinger on Sting's arm. "You should probably be heading back to town, right?"
"Yeah…" Sting responded, getting up. "It was nice to see you again."
"We should do this again sometime soon," Miele replied. "I'd love to hear more about your adventures with your rescue team."
"Oh, sure," Sting said, buzzing happily. "Maybe next time, I'll bring my teammates so you can meet them."
"That would be nice," Miele responded. "I'll look forward to it."
"All right, then," Sting said, heading outside. "Until then, take care."
Sting began flying back to town, looking down at the forest below as he did so. Once it was out of sight, he started flying a little faster. He figured he would go to bed early this night, so he would have energy for whatever missions were waiting for him tomorrow. Perhaps he would even have a good story to tell the next time he saw Miele from whatever adventures awaited him and his teammates tomorrow?
Chiaki lay awake in bed and wasn't able to sleep until late that night, as he kept thinking about what was happening. Was everything going to vanish if the crystals weren't returned to their rightful place in time? One crystal had already been found, so surely the other crystals would be found in time? While he was pretty certain that things would work out, it still made him feel uneasy for some reason…
End of chapter 12.