A/N: I'm going to make one small, but quite interesting change to one character that pops up in the anime. I'll explain in full detail at the bottom of the page. Also, I made a poll if none of you noticed it. Go check it out if you can. Are polls even important?
It has been days since they've been chasing Mothim looking for the enchanted honey, but no luck so far. It hasn't been a total loss as Dawn was able to catch her own burmy of both genders, along with a hoothoot.
"Man, this sure is a big forest. If only I could look up how big it is." Ash huffed, getting a good workout with three days of running.
"I believe that... Eterna Forest... was over 200 square miles." Cheryl answered, only for the teens to groan even more.
"Ugh, I desperately need a shower. I feel so gross." Dawn complained, never having to go 2 days without cleaning before and there were no streams so far. "I mean, look at my hair! Despite brushing and having Prinplup's help it it's getting oily and tangled that makes brushing it even harder!"
"Eh what'cha going to do?" Ash rhetorically asked as he leaned against a tree with his hands behind his head. "Somehow Cheryl's hair still looks as smooth as when she stumbled across us."
"I just don't have your typical bad hair days. I'm sorry it's taking so much time out of your schedules, darlings. If you want to leave, I understand." Cheryl bemoaned feeling like she was wasting their time.
"No way! Even though my hair is paying for it, I managed to catch new Pokémon on this journey so it's not too bad." Dawn objected. "And besides, I still want to see this enchanted forest. I might even catch a combee."
"Yeah, we're helping this journey of yours right to the end. We're in no particular rush." Ash added. Cheryl wiped away tears from her face.
"Thank you so much. I was afraid my quest wasn't worth your time."
"You're welcome." Both Dawn and Ash said, whom looked at each other before laughing from the timing. It was then that on an all terrain moped, an officer stopped near them. She looked similar to Officer Jenny in Jubilife, but she had a tan and a green undershirt beneath her short sleeve officer shirt. She also had the same hair color as Jenny.
"Excuse me. I am officer Elenny. I'm patrolling these woods for potential lost people. Are you by any means lost?"
"Yes, but not for the city. We're looking for the enchanted honey in these woods." Cheryl explained.
"That myth? Good luck. People spent months here but couldn't find it. I ain't going to stop you but don't hold your hopes to high."
"Say, you really look similar to Officer Jenny in Jubilife." Ash pointed out.
"Oh yeah. You haven't heard? We're nonuplets." Elenny chuckled.
"Nonuplets?" Dawn asked, unfamiliar with the term.
"All of us carries this photo. Check it out." Elenny said as she took a photo from his moped and showed the three. They were flabbergasted to see nearly identical nine people. The legend said from top left to bottom right, Jenny, Elenny, Henry, Vinnie, Penny, Canny, Benny, Sunny and Zenny. 3 men and 6 women.
"I've never seen this many uplets before." Dawn stated, sweating a bit.
"Seems like your parents had a thing for ending with the same pronunciation." Ash chuckled as he saw the names.
"Yeah. Canny's super embarresed about it. She just can't bring herself to legally change it but she prefers to have everybody call her Candy." Once she had her photo back she said, "Well, good luck, and beware of any Team Galactic grunts. It's rumored they've been looking for that honey too." Elenny warned before riding off.
"What a weird family." Ash said.
"But noble officers just the same. All of them." Dawn pointed out.
"So true. Anyway, let's have some lunch after that happened." Cheryl suggested. It didn't take long before they were taking a break on a picnic blanket eating various snack bars filled with most of the necessary nutrition for a healthy diet. "I just thought of something; I never really asked you what you two want to accomplish in your lives. You know that I want to be a treasure hunter like my grandfather. What are your goals?"
"I'm a Pokémon researcher. I work under Prof. Rowan, and I want to catch every Pokémon in the Sinnoh region and learn the mysteries of evolution." Dawn explained.
"Isn't that lovely? You must be one smart girl." Cheryl complimented. And how about you?" She turned to Ash.
"I'm going to become the Pokémon champion." She lightly gasped to his response.
"Wow. You're certainly reaching far, are you?"
"Yeah, unlike Dawn who wants to catch everything, I want to be the best trainer in the Sinnoh region."
"That sounds like a perfect goal for you. I can see it in your eyes. The passion and fire." Cheryl put it in such an elegant way. Dawn looked into his eyes too, and unintentionally blushed before looking away. Their conversation was interrupted when they spotted a buneary pop it's head out of the ground.
"Bun?" It said as it smelled the air.
"How adorable. A buneary. I think we attracted it with our food." Cheryl observed. When it realized it was spotted, the rabbit bounced away.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Dawn called out as she chased after it. Ash sighed as he finished off a bar, grabbed a whole bunch and chased off after her followed by Cheryl. Despite the girl's greater stride speed, Buneary's hopping and head start kept it ahead of her.
"Star, use quick attack!" Dawn instructed as she revealed her Staravia. Star sped up and was about to ram herself into the rabbit when it hopped up and bounced off the ground super hard, dodging the bird without looking.
"Wow, good reflexes." Dawn commented as she kept in pursuit. "Star, use wing attack while its in the air!" The bird Pokémon took a sharp turn upward and her wings glowed white with power. Upon seeing Star coming back, Buneary glowed red and threw a temper tantrum as it fell, and pushed its feet into Star's wings, the two colliding quite fearsomely. In fact, Buneary's attack landed on the joint where the wing connected to the body, causing critical damage to Star as it screeched in agonizing pain. "No, Star!" Dawn cried out as both the Pokémon crashed into the ground. "Return!" Star retreated back into her Pokeball. "I'm sorry Star. You did a good job." She looked to see Buneary cool off for the moment, but had some difficulty standing from the impact it took landing the blow. "You're strong, but I've got you now. Krikky, I choose you!" Dawn yelled as she summoned her red cricket. "Use leech life!" She ordered as the Cricket Pokémon ran towards the rabbit. Still recovering, Buneary jumped forward and pounded against the bug types' head. He was seriously knocked back, but Krikky was able to rebound and take hold of the Rabbit Pokémon, biting into it to recover some health. The rabbit cried out in pain before kicking away one of the arms and pounding it back. Growing frustrated again, Buneary glowed red and assaulted Krikky. "Krikky, attempt to use sing!" Dawn instructed. Scurrying away, he used his scythe arms to create harmonic music. Hearing it with its elongated ears started to tire the Rabbit Pokémon out, especially after using frustration twice. "Nice, go Pokeball!" Dawn declared as she threw the sphere at the normal type, catching it. The now filled Pokeball wobbled three times before clicking, confirming it. "Yes, I caught a buneary! Now let's see what we've got here?" Dawn talked to herself as she scanned her newest capture.
"Buneary, the Rabbit Pokémon. One of its two ears are always rolled up. They can be forcibly extended to shatter even large boulders."
"Wow, you're quite the strong fighter, are you?" She asked the Pokeball before it teleported away.
"Wow, that was cool Dawn." She heard Ash's voice compliment her as Dawn turned to the two companions watching her.
"I must say, that was a beautiful display of battling. You're not just smart but powerful as well." Cheryl praise, making Dawn blush.
"Oh, I'm not that good. Ash's the trainer after all.
"Uh, which I taught you. You may not be a trainer, but you're certainly skilled and strong like one. Here, up top." Ash raised his hand. Dawn smiled as she returned the high five.
"Please, let my Chansey heal your Staravia." Cheryl offered.
"Oh thank you." Dawn thanked as she let her bird Pokémon out, still severely wounded. Cheryl released her Chansey and told her to use soft boiled. Chansey then made a gold colored energy ball that went into Star, and healed her all the way up. Star chirped and flapped her wings but winced as its left wing still stung.
"I think the joint is still sore or something. We'll likely need to take her to a Pokémon Center." Cheryl recommended.
"Yeah, good idea. Star, return. After we find the enchanted honey though. She's healed so the worst is I can't use Star. No big deal."
"Yeah, we can just keep using Mothim…" He was cut off as they all spotted a combee floating through the air and flying off in a different direction. "... Or we could follow that bee." He concluded.
"After it!" Cheryl responded as they went after it. However, it wasn't long before they lost it due to it's high flight speed.
"Dang it. I wasn't expecting living three hexagons to move that quickly." Ash snarked.
"Don't worry. We now know which general direction to go. "Go, Mothim!" Cheryl cheered as she summoned her Pokémon. It chirped in greeting. "Mothim, we have reason to believe that the enchanted honey is that way. Would you please guide us to the honey with your sense of smell?" She asked Mothim. He chirped happily before flying in the direction told. "Let's go!"
After a bit more running after Mothim, the trees started rustling, making them stop in alert. A lot of combee revealed themselves before connecting and stacking themselves to become a honeycomb wall with smiling faces.
"Now that's the happiest wall I've ever seen." Ash joked. Thankfully, the wall didn't block them as they flew towards the direction they were running towards.
"We must be getting close! We just have to keep going!" Dawn affirmed as they continued the quest, nearing the end.
Finally, at sunset, they found a place heavily populated with combees in the tens of thousands. A few cliff walls were even completely covered in combees stacked together. The light of the setting sun amplified how orange and shiny the whole place was. What put it all together was a magnificent waterfall leading to a stream for them to drink from.
"Wow. They're everywhere." Dawn marveled, her eyes glittering from the beautiful sight. One thing that Cheryl noticed was that Mothim flew towards the waterfall, pointing out there was a narrow space behind the waterfall.
"Follow me please." She politely instructed as she went to the edge and carefully treaded over a small ledge over the water. The two teens were right behind her and just barely made it past the water, though Cheryl's hair got wet and Dawn's back got soggy. It was that thin. Ash actually went back and shifted the backpack to his front so that the laptop in there didn't short out.
"No wonder everybody else never found it. They likely couldn't find that ledge without a mothim. Once they got in, He saw Dawn once again with her hair in a pony tail and in her V-neck tank top, and this time not even wearing her white shirt so he could see her arms and upper back. His nose started to bleed again but Ash caught it this time by snorting it back up and swallowing, wiping what got out away. Once they were all in, Mothim flew at a modest pace so that they didn't trip in the cave. It was very dark so it was hard to see where to step.
"It's so dark. Hey Ash, how about we get ourselves some light?" Dawn suggested.
"Good idea. Luxio, come out."
"You too Sparky." They each summoned their Luxio, and upon order, they lit up cackling with electricity illuminating the cave, like they did in the Oreburgh cave.
"Sparky. What a lovely name." Cheryl complimented. Sparky blushed as Luxio snuggled up to it, sharing its static. Eventually they came across a hole in the ground filled with luminescent crystals.
"So beautiful." Dawn gasped. They looked down to see that it went extremely deep. They couldn't see the bottom.
"Wish we had birds that could carry us." Ash groaned. "My legs are so tired from all that walking and running and searching." Thankfully they didn't have to go way down as Mothim found a hole that went dipper into the ground horizontally, and found themselves in more caves. "Okay, what are we in; the world's largest abandoned ant colony? I can't make heads or tails on how much there is here." Ash complained. It wasn't long after saying that that Mothim started panicking from something.
"What is it dear?" Cheryl asked her Pokémon before they started hearing buzzing. Soon, they were surrounded by angry bee guards. All of them screamed in horror as they ran for their lives, but saw that they were being out-sped.
"Dawn, do you still have your onix on you?!" Ash asked while sprinting.
"Won't he just cause a cave in?"
"If I'm going out at least let's go out fighting, not running like cowards!"
"Fine! Onix, block them off!" Dawn shouted as she unleashed her onix inside of the cave and roared, it's deep growl echoing through the cave so loudly the humans covered their ears. Onix swiped his tail through the pillars causing some of the ceiling to crumble down, blocking off some of the combee. Onix then snaked himself back to his owner quickly as it had just as much speed as the combee. "Onix, disorientate them with screech!" Dawn ordered as the three clamped their ears as tight as possible. Onix growled shockwaves through the cave, even cracking some of the stone. The combees stood no chance as they circled in random directions in response, even smacking into each other. This gave the humans and onix to escape.
"Thank you so much, Onix. Even if my ears are still ringing. Return." She sort of yelled, returning the rock snake into the sphere. They managed to elude the bees after about 10 minutes of dashing away from danger. The two luxios still looked like they were experiencing mild discomfort in their large ears.
"So, does Mothim still know the way, or are we hopelessly lost." Ash grumbled.
"Don't worry Ash; Mothim made sure to go the right way even as while we were running. In fact, look at that wall." Cheryl pointed, making the two look where she was directing. "See anything strange about it?"
"Hexagons?" Ash asked, now growing fearful again. The wall started moving as the wall dissolved into many combees in an ambush. From behind them was what they have been looking for the entire time; the Amber Castle. Or more accurately, a suspended tower of honey held up by strings of support. They walked across one of the bridges and went inside the tower, only to be amazed by what they saw. Steps of honey. Fountains of honey. And in the center, a cocoon throne holding the only Vespiquen of the whole colony. It's eyes glowed red with deadly warning. Cheryl began walking towards the Beehive Pokémon. Dawn was about to stop her when Ash caught her shoulder, shaking his head. He nudged her down so that they were on one knee, and he bowed before Dawn copied him, only having a vague idea on what he's doing. Cheryl spoke in the most motherly way possible.
"Dear Vespiquen, please forgive us for forcing ourselves in here and startling you all and all the combee. My grandfather dedicated his entire life trying to prove to himself whether you or this place existed. Please believe me. He would never have considered taking your precious honey from you. He wasn't a crook, and that's not how I am. Treasure hunters are strange. Unusual indeed. Even on occasion selfish and greedy. But look into my eyes and see the truth." She took a small jar out of her bag. Half the size of a honey bear plastic jar, but twice as round in width. "If you could just give me this much, grandfather's dream will finally come true." She held it up to the queen while kneeling. "He used to say that even if you can only get a little bit of your dream, it'll still bring you great happiness. Won't you please?" However, before the queen could respond, the ceiling above the tower exploded as a squad of Team Galactic grunts dropped down from above.
"Secure the honey!" One grunt bellowed.
"For the benevolent glory of Team Galactic!" Another added. The combees tried attacking them, but they were either cut down by the glameow's claws or fell sick to stunky's poison gas. All of the hustle and the earlier explosion started to cause the walls and floor to crack, making the place unstable.
"No! I won't let you! Grotle, razor leaf! Staravia, wing attack! Bibarel, rollout! Luxio, spark! Buizel, water gun!" Ash commanded as he threw out each Pokeball two at a time, letting each of his Pokémon attack as soon as they emerged.
"Good idea! Prinplup, bubble! Bebe, water gun! Sparky, spark! Krikky, fury cutter!" With this many Pokémon attacking at once, half of the enemy forces have been knocked out at once.
"Don't let them interfere any longer! Let 'em have it!" One grunt demanded of the lower grunts. As the fight kept going, the cracks kept getting worse.
"Dawn, I've got an idea! Please do as I say! Grotle, aim your razor leaves into the cracks!" Ash said in one shout in quick haste. The Grove Pokémon nodded as it fired its leafs into the cracks, stuffing them to the brim. "Now Dawn, let's shoot water into the cracks to satirize the honey!"
"I get you! Prinplup, use bubble on the cracks! Bebe, same with water gun!" Dawn instructed. The two water Pokémon obeyed as they shot water into the cracks, letting the honey fill in the small spaces in between the leaves, somewhat strengthening their hold. Even without the help of the water Pokémon, there were still enough Pokémon plus the combees to overpower the invading forces and defeat all the cats and skunks.
"Retreat! Retreat!" They yelled as they ran out the corridors, unable to retrieve any honey."
"We were able to hold them off." Ash sighed, wiping away sweat.
"Yeah, that was intense for a moment." Dawn lightly laughed as the two high fived each other. The combee calmed down as they started repairing the walls the right way, pushing out the leaves and watered down honey with new honey. "Thank you all so much. You all did awesome today."
"Yeah, I couldn't have asked for a better team." Ash gave congrats. All of the Pokémon present all started blushing and said their names in humbled tones. Prinplup tried stepping forward and puffed out her chest like she did the most work, but Grotle nudged her side as if to say not to ruin the moment. They all turned to Vespiquen whom held the jar filled to the brim with honey. She buzzed with approval. They all smiled as Cheryl walked up to the queen and accepted the jar.
"Thank you so much. I will never forget your kindness, majesty." She thanked, bowing in respect. Ash, Dawn, and all their Pokémon did the same to their ability. Cheryl walked back to her friends. "I've got the enchanted honey! We'll each have one finger tip worth." Each of them took a tiny drop and had a taste. They all stiffened from the sheer shock of the sugary sweetness from the honey.
"Wow. I don't know if chocolate and candies will ever satisfy me again after tasting that." Ash commented.
"No kidding. Hopefully I'll forget the punch of this stuff." Dawn hoped for. Shaking her head of the thought, this time she approached the queen. "Excuse me, Vespiquen your highness. I have a small favor for the future. I'm a researcher who's studying all the Pokémon in this whole region, and it seems like this is the only place to find combees, both below and above ground. If possible, could I please come on a future day to catch a combee that'll evolve into a vespiquen?" After a few seconds of just hovering there, she nodded silently. Dawn grinned, though not too big. She bowed while saying thanks. With that said, the queen raised her arms and buzzed an order for her soldiers, whom began surrounding the whole group. They were all picked up and yelled in shock as they couldn't see anything beyond the combees. After what felt like a few minutes, they touched down back on land outside of the waterfall, the night clearly night time.
"Well... that happened." Ash remarked.
"And I have this jar to prove it. I owe a big thanks to all of you." Cheryl praised them wholeheartedly, so ever grateful to her new friends.
"You're welcome. Say, perhaps you could help us get to Eterna City? This whole adventure totally threw us off." Dawn asked sweating.
"No problem. We'll go after breakfast." The treasure hunter agreed, smiling.
A/N: Haha, I had a little fun with changing the Officers a bit. I tried making them slightly more believable compared to the anime and games on how everyone looks the same. Although the Nurse Joy's that will require more thinking. I considered Henny than Henry but Henry sounded more normal. Elenny is a warped way of saying Elenore. Zenny is a bad pun on the word zenith, as the Pokémon League is usually where you're the best. Well, what did you think? Tell me down in the reviews.