The Boy Who Fought the Hornet's Nest

Walter, Natalie, and Jet immediately took off for dear life. Jet had never been more scared in his life, and was thoroughly convinced that he may die this day. They ran past the two Bug Catchers who provoked the swarm; they were now attempting to hide themselves in a nearby bush.

Apparently they didn't do a very good job at hiding, because thirty seconds later a bone chilling scream could be heard throughout the trees. Jet felt a sense of dread and ran all the more faster. He felt Natalie trip behind him and stopped to help her while Walter kept going.

"Nat, are you okay?" Jet asked as he helped her up. He looked up as he heard the buzz of a Beedrill diving at them with its stinger ready. Wasting no time, Jet pulled his new sword from its sheath and swung it with all his might. Natalie squealed as the Pokémon was halved.

Jet gritted his teeth, "It's no good! The others will be here soon, we can't out run them!"

Natalie looked at Jet with fear welling in her eyes. Jet took a deep breath and removed his belt. "Natalie, take my Pokémon and get out of here! I'm going to try to hold them off! Look for a place to hide!"

Natalie didn't move, "Jethro…"

Jet yelled, "We don't have time do argue! I don't want you guys getting hurt! Now get the fuck out of here!"

Natalie grabbed the belt with tears in her eyes. Jet readied his sword and charged in the direction of the approaching Beedrill. He found them hovering in an open field killing every living thing insight. From the curious squirrels, to the passing Caterpie; everyone was now their enemy. One of their number spotted Jet and flew straight at him.

Jet tried to take a stance that could be ideal for defending his vitals, but he felt his legs shaking uncontrollably. The Beedrill went in for the kill and Jet swung for dear life. His blade connected with the stinger and bounced off as if he'd hit metal.

"Damn, it's strong!"

Jet was put on the defensive as the Beedrill jabbed again and again, all the while knocking the katana away as if it were a child's toy. Jet was backing up and blocking as much as he could, but he was too outmatched. He tripped and fell backwards over a fallen tree branch. Beedrill took advantage of this and knocked the katana out of his hand.

It was just about to deliver the finishing blow when something scarlet red jumped over Jet's head and attacked it. Jet stood up in shock as Thorn ripped Beedrill's throat out with his fangs. Jet had never seen Thorn so vicious before.

"Hey," Jet turned around and saw Natalie calling to him. Beside her was Jet's Pokémon poised for battle. Among them were also Eevee, Psycho, and Spinarak. Natalie said, "Aren't you the one who is always talking about fighting as a team? You shouldn't sacrifice yourself without giving your Pokémon a choice on whether or not they want to fight!"

"You guys…" Jet didn't know what to say. He watched as Natalie's face dropped and turned around. The entire swarm of Beedrill was now aware of their presence and were hovering menacingly, ready for battle. Hornet flew in front of Jet and let out a loud buzzing sound. A large Beedrill with multiple scars on its body flew to the front of its troops and began to emit the same sound as Hornet. Jet didn't know what they were saying, but he had a feeling they were not going to get out of there peacefully.

Turning to his Pokémon, he said, "If this goes south I need you guys to be ready! Butters, Spinarak, Psycho, I need you guys to be the artillery. Stay in back and shoot down as many as you can! Sora, you are our air support. I need you to take out as many as possible from the sky.

"Thorn, Pugsly, Eevee, you guys are with me. We'll be the infantry. Spark, you don't really have any battle experience so I need you to stay with Natalie and protect her! If anyone comes near, aim for the eyes and take them down!"

Jet picked up his blade, just as Hornet started making threatening gesture to the Alpha Pokémon of the swarm. Jet told his team, "Get ready!"

Everyone tensed up. The Alpha apparently got tired with negotiations, because it made a stab at Hornet. It was pandemonium. There were a little less than thirty Beedrill against eleven opponents; two of which were human and one of which was a level five Pichu.

Thorn began to burn and tear his way through one after another. Pugsly actually got on a Beedrill's back and rode it around before tearing off its wings. Eevee was taking on two at a time while alternating between Sand attack and Hidden Power.

Sora didn't get a chance to attack at all. She had so many Beedrill chasing her that going on the offensive was impossible. Instead, she would out fly them and make them chase her into Butter's range of fire.

Spark was doing astoundingly well at following Jet's orders. Any time an enemy Beedrill would appear, the little guy would jump right up and gauge out its eyes. Afterwards, Natalie would drop a heavy rock on its head repeatedly to kill it.

The only one not pulling their weight was Jet. He had trouble taking on just one Beedrill at a time. He was constantly being saved by the artillery. Jet noted shamefully that the only good he was probably doing was distracting one Beedrill at a time so his team would have one less enemy to worry about.

Above him, Hornet was fighting for his life in an all-out death match with the leader of the Beedrill. Hornet was at a huge disadvantage due to the fact that he had only been trained for ground fights. Against an aerial veteran like his current foe, Hornet was getting his ass handed to him.

As expected of a traitor to his race, said the Alpha Beedrill, You are no match for me! I have fought against birds twice as strong as you! And each time, they have tasted the end of my stinger!

Hornet didn't want to admit it but the Alpha was right. Hornet was accumulating wounds at a rapid pace. To make matters worse, his arms and wings were tired. He was simply no match. But he couldn't fail his master, not after all he's been taught! Not after he had finally reached his dream of becoming a Beedrill! Not after he had made so many friends, who were now fighting for a common cause!

No, he must remember his teachings. The one thing his master had always emphasized was to master the basics, for they were his greatest weapons. Thinking that it was worth a try, Hornet spit a stringshot into his enemy's eye and pulled hard. The attack worked, for Hornet had taken out his foe's eye.

Nooooo! Said the Alpha, What have you done to me, you traitor?

Stabbed his enemy in the abdomen and buzzed in his ear, Now I'm the Alpha!

Hornet's foe fell to the ground, and he let out a long buzz in triumph. The other Beedrill stopped fighting for a second when they saw their fallen leader. Suddenly they all started buzzing at once and flew toward Hornet simultaneously.

Jet yelled into the air, "Hornet! Noooo!"

Hornet started to glow as they came near, and released a powerful three hundred sixty degree pulse of energy that knocked all of his enemies back. Hornet had used up his remaining energy in that last Hidden Power, however, and passed out in midair.

Jet ran up and caught Hornet just before he reached the ground. It began to rain as all of the Beedrill hovered above Jet. All of his Pokémon ran over to surround him in a last effort to protect him and Hornet.

Jet's heart started to pound in his chest and he said, "Whatever happens, I want you to know that I love you guys and it was an honor to train with you."

Butters started to glow all of a sudden, and Jet watched in amazement as, for the second time that day, his Pokémon had evolved.

"Butters…" Jet whispered under his breath. Butters' eyes started glowing and the Beedrill all buzzed in pain as her all out Confusion attack started to take hold.

It wasn't enough, however, because they all dove at Jet in unison as a final assault. Jet closed his eyes but the attack never came. Jet opened his eyes when he heard Natalie say, "That's good Psycho, keep it up!"

Jet watched in amazement as the combined force of Butter's and Psycho's Confusion repelled the last nine Beedrill. They buzzed angrily as they made their retreat, leaving everyone to live to fight another day.

Both Butters and Psycho passed out from the aftermath of their last attack. Jet checked the vitals of the fallen Pokémon, "They're alive, but we need to get them medical attention. Walter said there is a Pokémon Center near the heart of the forest, we'll head there. We should recall everyone so they can get some rest."

Natalie gave Jet his belt back. He recalled his Pokémon one by one, thanking them all for their hard work as he did. The only one he didn't recall was Sora.

"Listen girl, have an important mission for you! I need to fly up high and find out which direction the Pokémon Center is in. It should be the only building toward the center of the forest."

Sora hooted and pushed her head against his affectionately, and then was off. Jet put his belt back on and smiled down at the pokeballs that was his team. He looked at Natalie and said, "Thank you fo-"

She slapped him, hard. "If you ever do some stupid shit like that again I'll kill you myself, understand?"

Her eyes had the sign of tears emerging. Jet said nothing but pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

Jet wasn't sure how long he held her, but it felt like at least five minutes before they let go. Sora flew onto Jet's shoulder and pointed her wing in the direction of a big hill in the distance.

"Ok, girl, good job! Now get some rest, you fought bravely today!" Jet recalled Sora and told Natalie, "Let's go get some treatment for Psycho, Butters, and Hornet."

Natalie smiled and said, "I just realized, you named your Pokémon for their evolved forms when you first caught them! You were planning on evolving them for the contest all along, weren't you?"

Jet smiled, "I didn't know they would evolve so quickly but I figured they would evolve eventually. I wanted to give them a name that would make sense no matter what they became."

XXX

It was night fall by time they found the Pokémon Center.

"Your Pokémon don't look too damaged, we'll have them fully healed for you two in no time!"

"Thanks miss!" said Natalie to the receptionist. Jet and Natalie decided to get some food from the lounge before collecting their Pokémon and going up to their room.

In the lounge was the president of the Kanto Bug Catcher's Association from the news talking to a cop, "Yeah, we are going to have to shut the contest down. Two kids getting killed by a swarm of Beedrill; what a fiasco!"

Jet interrupted them, "Shut the contest down, after all I've been through?"

Both the cop and the president looked surprised to see Jet, "I'm not sure who you are young man but you are ill-informed of the situation! You see, a swarm of Beedrill-"

"I know about the Beedrill, I fought them! I heard those kids die! I was almost killed myself! And now you're saying I'm not getting nothing out of it? I smell a lawsuit!"

Both men looked shocked. The cop asked, "You were actually there?"

Natalie said, "You're damn straight we were there! Our Pokémon are getting their injuries healed right now! For god sakes, Jethro had to fight them with a katana!"

The cop turned to the president and said, "There was a katana at the scene. We were wondering about that!"

And so Jet and Natalie told the story of how they narrowly escaped being killed by a swarm of Beedrill. They were bought tea by the president, and were thoroughly interviewed. After the interview, it was decided that the contest would be canceled due to the deaths of two of the contestants. The president promised to reimburse all the trainers back for their money.

Natalie demanded more retribution under threat of legal action. And so it was that the president unwillingly wrote a check for five thousand dollars to Natalie for her troubles. Jet was able to convince the president to give him the first prize TM instead of a financial compensation.

"Bug Bite, huh?" Jet said when they finally reached their room with their Pokémon healed. "It figures they'd give me this TM."

"You should've taken the money," Natalie said, now in her PJ's.

"Nah, TM's are hard to come by. And this is a strong move for bug types, I'll teach it to Hornet and Butters tomorrow."

Jet went to go take a shower and relax in the hot water. He decided to take it easy on everyone for the next few days and just focus on training Spark.

Jet had not told his parents or his friends about what happened that day, but he did let them now that he was in the contest and that it got canceled.

After the shower Jet put on some clean under wear and a clean t shirt and got in the bed with Natalie. "God, I'm glad to just get some sleep in fresh clothes in a warm bed for once."

Natalie smiled, "Trust me I know the feeling."

She laid her head on his chest and said, "If you wake me up before ten tomorrow, I'll fucking kill you."

Author's Notes:

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