So this one is longer than usual. Please leave a review, it makes me very happy to see them.
Chapter 8
Mission Not Likely
(-¤-)
It had been two weeks.
Two weeks of wandering around these goddamned woods and nothing to show for it. Not a fucking drop of honey, enchanted or otherwise. Holy fucking shit I have never wanted a shower more in my life.
To summerize my life since I'd left Dellitown was easy at least. Follow a map to get deeper into the forest, order some light training while I set up camp and then scrounge for food for an hour. Eat while I read through the journal and send Luke out to search while I sleep. Him being a nocturnal predator who relied on stealth made for a perfect night scout. He would search after dark, maybe catch something to eat, and then return with no news. Lather, rinse, repeat.
At least all this nothing gave me time to read this journal. It was full of fascinating information, for instance certain moves can be used to counter others of different types. Such as grounding ones self with a steel claw or steel wing to negate an electric attack of most of its damage. Or that you could freeze any water type move in its tracks with certain ice type attacks. It even had more obscure stuff that would take someone forever to figure out on their own, like certain items causing strange things and certain move combos resulting in unexpected effects. Ideas, theories and observations, each more effective than the last, it was basically a tactical spellbook. Unfortunately with my teams limited moveset we couldn't make alot of use of it quite yet. But it was clear that this would put me on the fast track to victory.
Johnson must have been a hell of a trainer in his heyday, or maybe this was a hand me down from someone else. I'd have to ask Nurse Joy when I called her. Nah, I don't actually care about that guy, his cow broke my arm, fuck em.
Also this is neither here nor there, but I need to talk about ration bars. Have you ever had an MRE? Well a ration bar was like if you took that idea and made it way more efficient and nasty. They were these super dense nutrient bars that were designed to be easy to carry in large quantities. When you ate one you were supposed to drink plenty of water because it would soak it up and expand in your stomach so one bar the size of a king size Hersheys chocolate bar would fill you up for like half the day. They were also the worst tasting thing I'd ever eaten. It was like concentrated cardboard mixed with sadness, it was dry, it was gritty, and I had to eat like twenty of them so far. They suck! I would kill a man for real food right now. Alright, tanget over.
I was making breakfast for the group, we found some berries and a few edible roots and I was trying to cook them into something vaguely edible in a pot over the fire. It was very sludgy so far, but it smelled like something other than paper so I was counting that as a win. The forest was a peacful as ever, the wind blew through the leaves bringing birdsong and the scent of cedar with it. We had stopped in a little clearing just off the path, the light broke through the never ending canopy just enough to let the hardy grass grow in scratchy clumps. My simple yellow triangle tent rested to my back and a random log served as my seat.
Jack was nearby doing some stretches to limber himself up for the day. We had had a few enocounters with some pokemon but a quick punch from him usually sent them packing. Ever since Tauros he had given it his all and not once disobeyed me. I guess showing him that I actually cared earned his loyalty. Though he was still incredibly aggressive to anything other than me. He tolerated Luke at best, not that Luke cares mind you, guy was too cheerful for his own good. Nothing seemed to faze him, not even the occasional swing from Jack. Polar opposites.
The peace was interupted by the near silent flutter of wings and not so silent screechings of Luke. Dude flew in swooping over the clearing with a great big smile on his face. I jumped up, this is new! He had always come back with a smile and a shake of his weirdly shaped head.
"Dude did you find it!?"
He came to a hover in front of me and nodded frantically before going back to flying around. Okay, ok ok ok. This is it!
"Alright guys, todays the day!" My little monsters both came to stand infront of me, Luke danced in place, jumping side to side and Jack rolling his shoulders and cracking his knuckles. "we're gonna storm that place, steal that honey, and get the FUCK outta these woods." I made a show of pumping my fist up, earning me a big cheer from Luke and a nod of determination from Jack. "Lets do this shit!" Unfortunately my stomach chose that moment to protest.
"... Right after breakfast that is."
(-¤-)
We had been trekking west through the dense woods for about five hours now, I had to occasionally hack through some bushes or young saplings with my machete. Jack and Luke were in their balls at the moment, getting plenty of rest so they could be in top shape for the raid. I would let Luke out periodically to make sure I was still going the right way, I had to be corrected twice so far. At one point I walked through a clearing full of weird giant flowers that seemed familiar, I think they were in the same episode that they found the hive in. They seemed to just be budding.
I was getting a good look at a particularly big one when a shadow passed over head. I looked up and saw a enormous group of combee all linked together in a wall, they floated gently along carried by the wind and the soft buzzing of a dozens of wings. It was a fascinating sight to be sure. It also meant we were close, I had done my research in preparation for this. Combee only do that for two reasons, to put up a united front against enemies or to act as a casual deterent towards intruders looking to invade the hive. And since it hadn't noticed me while it floated along lazily it was the latter. So I pressed on, the thought of the honey and the money I would make off it itching at the back of my mind.
We arrived midday, the view was amazing, a gorge cut through the forest as if a great blade had swept through, a few river and streams terminated into waterfalls along the walls slowly carving furrows into the rock and feeding the river below. Bushes and hardy schrubs clung to the walls in patchy splotches, feeding off the water and mist brought by the falls. And everywhere I looked I could see combee walls floating about. Forming into bigger ones and breaking down into smaller ones, constantly shifting around making it impossible to count them. I marked the location down on my map, no need to wander around for another two weeks when I come back here.
I scanned the cliff face looking for a way down. A small trail made itself known, it was steep but plenty wide enough for me to travel it, I wondered if pokemon used it to reach the water below. They wouldn't mind the combee much seeing as so long as you don't bother them they won't bother you, like real bees. It was only when you started attacking that they would swarm you. I made my way down noting that this was gonna be difficult to run back up.
Now to figure out which waterfall hid the hive. Not too big a problem, I could see about five of them and only two were big enough to hide a cave. I let out Jack for this next part, I needed to be sure I found the right cave and his nose should tell us if the honey is that way.
The first cave we tried was a dead end, no cave but the wind and mist coming off of it was refreshing at least. The second one however had a decent sized cave behind it. Further in I could see stone columns scattered around in random patterns as they disappeared into the darkness. Jack perked up, nose twitching as he took in the scent. Bingo.
"Alright buddy, lead the way." He jumped from my shoulder and started heading deeper into the cavern. I took out my flashlight and a piece of chalk immediately, the survival guide had informed me that the most likely way to die in a cave was getting lost or falling down unseen tunnels dug by pokemon or otherwise. As we went I marked the walls with arrows pointing our way out. I didn't see any pit falls, but stayed on guard anyway. The last thing I need is a broken leg, been there, done that.
eventually we came to a room made purely of blue glowing crystal. Memories rushed back to me is I looked around. I had forgotten about this part of the episode, crystal gleamed and shone all around me and I looked down to see my path spiral into a pit pock marked with tunnels, the crystal must end at some point because it eventually fades to darkness making it seem bottomless. I marveled at it for a moment wondering what exactly this stuff was. Why did it glow, was it getting light from topside or was it weird pokemon magic stuff? I searched for a rock to pick up and bring with me, maybe I could get some info on it. At the very least it would make a good gift for Nurse Joy. I found one about the size of my fist and unceremoniously shoved it in my bag.
Enough gawking, time to go. I made my way down the path, making sure Jack got a good whiff of each tunnel. I wonder if pokemon carved this place out. And if they did so before or after the combee moved in. I shook my head trying to focus. These are questions for later, I got stuff to do, and I'm pretty sure Jack just found our tunnel.
We stepped into the seemingly random tunnel and after only a dozen feet we were surrounded by dirt and brown stone columns. We must have walked for a good thirty minutes over even ground, does this extend under the whole forest? Maybe this is what the combee use to get around. If so it must have dozens if not hundreds of other entrances seeing as the one I was using wasn't very busy. Sure it had a masive amount of the pokemon at the entrance but none in the cave itself. There must be an even bigger entrance nearby that they use.
As we turned a corner my flashlight swept across something big and yellow. I stopped, taking it in. It was the combee wall, THE combee wall. It was massive, hundreds and hundreds of the buggers linked together stopping anything from moving past them. We were here, the hive was just behind this wall of living flesh and chitin. I was almost mesmerized by its odd pulseing as each bug pokemon breathed and shifted. It was impressive to say the least.
And then the little bastards shot at me!
Multiple rainbow lighting beams started crackling forth from the wall forceing us to duck for cover. What was that!? That doesn't look like struggle bug, and it certainly wasn't fucking gust. What was that? Shit, it must be the vespiqueen using attack order. That means they know we're here.
I let Luke out at my feet and kneeled down to their level. With us out of their sight the combee had chilled out and stopped firing at us.
"Alright guys, this is the place," I kept my voice low so the bugs couldn't over hear me, "they know we're here, but I got a plan. We're going for shock and awe. Luke" my big ol' bat perked up at his name "your gonna be our main defense, use super sonic on as many as you can to scramble them, and whirlwind and gust if they get to close." With a 'gol' he gave me a almost comical salute. "Jack, your on secondary defense and look out, get on my shoulder and give me signals to dodge as many attacks as possible, keep your head on a swivel. If anything gets to close use pound to send them flying, got it?" He nodded with his arms crossed, he was trying to act stoic but I could tell he was antsy, ears curled and muscles tight.
"And remember" I gave one last order. "Its very important that we don't damage the hive, it could bring the whole place crashing down, this is a grab and dash. No smashing." Both gave me quiet noises of acknowledgement. "Good, Luke get ready to blast that wall with a super sonic in three"
I tensed and got into a sprinters stance. My boots dug into the damp soil as my team readied themselves. Jack hopped on my back pack ready to bash anything with enough nerve to get close.
"Two"
Taking deep breaths I steeled myself for the chaos to come. My heart pounded in my chest knowing that the wrong move could be dire.
"One"
I dashed out of cover and Luke shot out like a bullet. The horrible almost imperceptible squeal of super sonic slammed into the wall, scrambling the minds of hundreds of pokemon all at once. My legs pumped as we dashed through the living and collapsing structure. Boots hit wax as I took in the sight before me.
Golden wax covered every inch of this massive chamber. Combee buzzed along either confused from the blast or trying to form a front. In the center suspended from multiple spires of wax was the queens chamber, it was at least four stories tall of the gleaming amber material. A bridge conveniently extended out from us to the center chamber
But I had no time to appreciate the view. The drones that hadn't been caught in the sonic blast were already converging on us. Luke snapped his wings forward and blasted apart a rather large wall that had formed in our way with a whirlwind. The miniature hurricane swept up the incredibly light bug types with little trouble and flung them away.
One bug tried to dive bomb me from behind but a sharp glowing pound from Jack sent it sprawling. Rainbow beams crackled around us the only thing saving me from being hit was Jacks warnings and the bugs own terrible aim. I noted with some amusement that there was something very starwarsy about this situation. Lots of identical enemies blasting at the protagonist on a bridge with no handrails.
We dashed into the hive chamber, narrowly avoiding another chromatic blast, tjanks to Jacks early warning. Inside was gorgeous, spires and supports of wax stretch around the room giving it strength. Pools of enchanted honey were concentrated in the center, the formation reminding me of the springs in Dellitown as another two bowls stood precariously on thin spires letting honey run down them into the pools below. In the center was a smaller chamber about the size of a guards shack.
And inside was vespiqueen. Eyes glowing red in rage, combee flitted about the chamber trying to get a lock on us. We didn't stop for a second though. Luke was already hard at work filling the room with sonic warfare and Jack gave me a hard yank to the side. I jumped right, avoiding another blast by the skin of my teeth. Dashing forward I readied the jug. I had picked a wide mouthed one to scoop it us as quick as possible.
Vespiqueen floated out of her throne, apparently ready to get her claws dirty and started charging up an attack.
"LUKE! THE QUEEN!"
He blasted a small combee wall with a gust and dashed forward. Vespiqueen barely managed to start firing at me with what might have been power gem as Luke slammed into her. The shot went wide and swept across several combee and a tookout a rather large stalagtite. My heart skipped and I prayed that the crack wouldnt spread, in fact the whole hive seemed to be holding its breath waiting for something to happen.
There was a creak and a small crackling noise, but after a moment it seemed that the structure would hold. In that case.
"LUKE, SONIC HER!" there was no hesitation to my command as vespiqueen received a point blank blast from the sound based attack. She jerked back as her mind fried and started spinning in circles. The rainbow lasers stopped suddenly as the queens odd power was interrupted. No more attack order. Several dive bombed me as I dashed for the middle, jug in hand. Jack worked over time smacking any that got close with pound and ricocheting off others, most went down after just a single hit but a few grew wise and attempted to batter me with a move I recognized as struggle bug, but were blasted away by Luke with a strong gust.
Without the queen ordering the drones the hive fell into disorder and chaos, none of the combee could come up with a better strategy than form more walls, each easily knocked down by Luke.
I reached the center and shoved the jug under the surface of the nearest pool, there must have been hundreds of gallons of the sticky substance. Honey coated my hands and flowed into the vessel with ease, most of the combee were either confused or knocked out leading to a few moments of peace. But I could hear more buzzing just outside.
With the jug filled I yanked it out and screwed on the cap. Honey coated it and my hands in thick tacky globs. I wiped off as much as I could but only a good bath was getting it off completely. I did my best to shove it back in my bag, realizing that most of my stuff was getting honey on it while I did so. Oh well, it'll wash off.
"I got it! Lets go lets go!"
We dashed out of the chamber unimpeded. Outside we found that the combee had had time to build another massive wall. Their insticts must be screaming at them to stop us with that tactic. I didn't even break stride as Lukes sonic assault toppled that one as well.
Sharp pings and snaps suddenly echoes through the chamber, Jack yelled out and I risked a glance behind me. Several of the bugs were blasting the bridge and the cracks were starting to spider web towards us. I poured as much speed into my legs as I could, Jack battered several more away as I did my best to dodge what I could see. Green blasts of energy shot out everywhere, struggle bugs struck at the bridge more and more as they swarmed.
I was almost there when I felt the ground fall out from under me. The edge shot away from veiw as I plummeted.
My heart stopped, I had just died for a jar of honey.
Why do I keep dying for food, I'm not even hungry.
An incredibly powerful gust of wind caught me and threw me back up to safety. Luke soared across my vision as I landed on the edge.
With most of the hive confused, knocked out or getting blown around in synthetic wind, there was nothing to stop us now. We dashed out of the golden chamber, with our loot and our lives.
And I cackled like a mad woman the whole way.
(-¤-)
The combees outside didn't stand a chance. By the time we were out the queen must have recovered but our strategy was too effective. Nothing could stand up to super sonic and whirlwind would wipe out droves of them.
So here we sat, heaving for air as I fought back that crazed laughter. Oh man it feels good to cause some trouble.
We all eventually caught our breath, Jack first seeing as he had the easiest job. Luke was wiped out though, poor guy could barely fly right now. I gave him some good ear scritches and alot of well deserved praise, he leaned into it with a content sigh. Without him this entire plan wouldn't have worked. He was the star today and that meant a reward.
I took the jug out noting that the entire inside of my bag was sticky and sighed. That was gonna take awhile to clean up. But at least the journal was ok, I had kept it in a water proof platsic bag for my stay in the forest.
With a twist the lid popped of and I took a good whiff. It was the sweetest smell I had ever encountered. Like a punch to the nose with a bag of sugar strapped to the fist.
"Guys come get you a taste, this is what we worked so hard to get." I dipped a finger in along with jacks paw and the end of Lukes wing. Simultaneously we each shoved it in our mouths.
It was like hyper concentrated sugar. This was even sweeter than just dumping pure cane sugar into your mouth from the bag. Even my incredibly sugar tolerant child palate was overwhelmed by it.
"Holy shit thats good!"
"Bun"
"Gol Gol!"
I looked down to see Jack smiling for the first time, it was a little one and it was only there for a moment, but it was still a smile. We basked in our victory for a few more moments. Content with the world and ourselves.
"I think you two earned a good rest." I returned both of them to their balls and clipped them back to my belt. I might try to make something with this stuff tonight. Just a little though, I need to keep as much as possible. It was a (previously) mythical item that had only been talked about in legend. This much of the stuff would fetch more than a pretty penny. I could probably get at least a hundred thousand out of this! Thats right motherfuckers, I'm rich!
Its a good thing it went well too. A second raid would be much more difficult even without the collapsed bridge, they were going to shore up defenses immediately. By the time we rested up the queen would probably have a strategy on how to deal with a second raid. We got through easy enough this time since they weren't expecting us but mega hives survive for generations because the leaders are smart. I'll need to be stronger with a better team the next time. Not to mention any combee in this forest will probably attack me on sight from now on.
Now I just gotta find a auction house to sell it a-
I heard it behind me just as I picked up the lid, an angry buzzing. I barely had enough time to look back just to see nothing but furious yellow.
The impact knocked the wind out of me and sent me flying, I tumbled head over heels and finally came to a stop. Pain blossomed in my chest from the hit and I looked up to see my new combatant.
A single combee, looking more pissed off than even my buneary could be. I reached for Jacks ball, he was the freshest and could take a single bee. But something stopped me.
The honey had spilled.
All of it. It soaked into the ground slowly and clung to any debris it could reach.
I looked to the combee.
Back to the honey
The combee
The honey
Combee
Honey
Bee
Fury unlike anything I had ever known before filled me. I jumped at it fingers extended like claws and screaming in pure ragged rage.
It was GONE, IT WAS ALL GONE! MADE MUD BY THE DESTROYER! THE TIME, THE EFFORT, THE TRAINING! WASTED!
"WWWRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY!"
The damned shitlord bastard didn't back down as I clung to it. It fucking should have. I grabbed its wing and swung the light thing straight into the ground with a soft crunch. It used gust kicking up dirt and leaves as I lifted up again and brought it back down. It finally knocked me off with a strugglebug, the green energy slapped me away with force but did nothing to cool the molten metal in my veins. If I got any angrier I was going to have a stroke.
I landed next to my bag and started throwing shit, rocks, ration bars, my fucking underwear! I was gonna fucKING KILL THIS THING!
Objects struck it over and over knocking it about like a cardboard box being ravished by a chimp. and then it had the goddamned audacity to disappear into a bright flash of red, the little sh- wait.
Red flash?
I looked down to the spot where my new mortal enemy had been moments before. The sight of a pokeball wiggling about took a solid six seconds to process. By the time I realized what had happened I heard the once so satisfying click of a successful capture.
...
...
...
"Your name is Bob because fuck you."
Alice Thorn
Apr 8
Team
Jack
Buneary
Moves: Pound, Foresight, Frustration, Sweetkiss, Defense curl, Baby doll eyes, Quick attack, Jumpkick.
Ability Limber
Luke
Golbat
Moves: Absorb, Super sonic, Astonish, Bite, Whirlwind, Wing attack, Confuse ray, Air cutter.
Ability Inner focus
Bob
Combee
Moves: sweetscent, Gust, Bug bite, Struggle bug.
Ability Honey gather
1140¥
In Box
N/A
