Beedrill

"I won't be late, won't be late, won't be late..."

The young Beedrill rushed through the forest, trying to reach his destination in time. His bright yellow and black pattern could be easily seen, but kept most other Pokemon away instead of calling their attention. The swarm owned this forest. The others knew to leave the Beedrills alone or else face the wrath of all of them.

He zipped around at speeds that others would be shocked at, from a creature of his size. He darted up in order to avoid crashing into a large tree branch. Looking back at it, he thanked the spirits for his quick reflexes. Otherwise...

He smacked right into the next tree branch.

"Uuuurrrgh..." he moaned as the impact vibrated his entire exoskeleton. That was the fifth one this week. He really ought to have learned by now.

"Toughen up, soldier," a gruff voice scolded. "Report!"

"Y-y-y-yes sir...ow!" He had flipped around, trying to get into the proper saluting pose when he crashed his head back into the branch. "This is Private Jun reporting for guard duty, Captain sir!"

The older battle-scarred Beedril, whom Jun only knew as 'Captain', grunted in response. His sharp harsh eyes contrasted with his battered stingers. According to stories, Captain had defended the swarm against many hostile enemies. It was said that he even defeated a giant three-headed Fearow. Captain was no longer on active duty. Instead, he trained the young members of the swarm to be great warriors like he had been.

"So sir, what am I guarding today, sir?" Jun asked, anxiously flipping his antennas.

"Calm down," Captain snapped. "You got a lot of energy, soldier, but maybe a little too much. Today, you are to watch this path." He jabbed his right stinger, which was nearly split in half, at the area below them.

Jun looked down at the footpath. It had originally been made of flattened dirt and gravel, but tough grasses were beginning to overtake it. The main way anyone could see that it was a path was how the vegetation was less dense there. "The path, sir?"

"It leads to our swarm's meadow! For that reason, we need someone to watch this path in case humans come through. If you see any humans, rush right back to the meadow and warn the advance guard." Captain narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure that even you can manage this without breaking anything. Except maybe your head from crashing into things."

Jun brought his front stingers up in front of his face in embarrassment. "Uh, yes sir, I mean, no sir! I mean... I'm not going to break anything today, sir, not even my head."

"Good for you." He started to fly back to the meadow, but then paused. "Right. Soldier, I want you to keep an eye out for any Combees as well. Some of the scouts have reported spotting these dastardly Bugs in and around the forest. But this is our territory, and we aren't sharing it with some honey-loving wimps."

Jun tilted his head. "Combees? Aren't they the ones that are led by the beautiful Vespiqueens?"

"Don't lose your head! We live for the swarm, we fight for the swarm, we die for the swarm. Remember that."

"Yes, sir! Of course, sir! Won't ever forget it, sir!"

"Sometimes I wonder about you." Then Captain took off for the meadow and training others.

"But I try real hard," Jun said plaintively. Not that it mattered. The old Beedrill was gone.

Landing on the branch, the young Beedrill looked around. Okay, so today it was watching this path. Warn the advance guard if humans show up. And report any Combees sighted. That wasn't so bad. Not like the nerve wracking job that was being on the advance guard. An advance guard Beedrill was likely to get into a battle every single day, with any other Bug that tried to take over the forest and any other Pokemon that tried to take over the small meadow the swarm rested in.

Watch the path. Watch, watch, watch. It wasn't like the path was going to go anywhere. Would anyone come down it? Or was this going to get really boring really fast?

He began counting the grass that was growing in the worn path to pass time, but lost count somewhere in the seventies when his eyes crossed and he couldn't remember if he counted certain stalks or not. That passed a good deal a time. As he started the count again, a Ratatta ran across where he was looking. "Hey!"

"Hey what?" the Rattata snapped back, but then looked up and saw who was speaking. "Oh, sorry there! I didn't mean to cross into your territory, I just..."

Jun looked at her, then shrugged. "Eh, I'm only on the lookout for humans. Don't go that way," he pointed back to the meadow, "but carry on if you're heading somewhere else."

"Um, well okay. Thanks." She ran into the vegetation opposite of where she had come in.

"Rattatas probably don't matter," Jun said to himself. "But if a Combee came, I'd smack some sense into it." He jumped up and began jabbing the air with his stingers. "You call yourself a bee warrior? You only got one puny little stinger while I have five! You think you can stand up to the jab-jab-jab-jab-JAB!"

Jun got so into his mock fighting that he twirled around while jabbing and stuck his poisonous stinger... into a Spearow that had stealthily landed beside him. The red and brown bird shrieked, jumping back into the air. With his insides turning cold in fear, he brought his front stingers up defensively.

"What in the world was that for?" the bird screamed at him. "That hurt!"

"Uh, of-of course it did! For I am a mighty Beedrill warrior!" Who happened to be scared silly of being eaten at that moment. But the bird didn't need to know that.

The Spearow glared at him. "One of these days... ooo, my head is spinning. I feel sick." He flew back into the depths of the forest. After a moment, there was a distant crash in the bushes.

Jun relaxed. "Did I really do that?" He looked himself over and found a brown feather stuck on his tail stinger.

That evening, when another Beedrill showed up to take path-watching duty, Jun went in to report to Captain. "The path didn't move an inch, sir."

"Very funny," the old Beedrill grunted. "So no humans. What about Combees?"

"None of them either, sir. But I defeated a Spearow in single combat!" He brought out the feather as proof.

"You did what?" Captain snatched the feather and looked it over. It was torn from his stinger, but the end of it had some blood from being ripped out of the Spearow's body.

"Honest to goodness, I did, sir," the young Beedrill said proudly. "Poisoned him and made him crash into the bushes, sir."

Captain stared at the feather a moment longer, then chuckled. "It seems you did, soldier. Nice work. There might be more to you than meets the eye."

Jun jumped up gleefully. "I did my be... ow!" He rubbed his head from smacking into the branch above them.

He laughed. "But you still need work."

…

Beedrill Fire Red entry: May appear in a swarm. Flies at violent speeds, all the while stabbing with the toxic stinger on its rear.

Inspired by the D/P/P rival, obviously. Although I didn't name him Jun; I named him Waldo because of that shirt.