Illumise and Volbeat

The sky was black, spotted with stars. There was no moon in the sky, although a town several miles off gave a brown cast to the air around it. All around the meadow, there were Pokemon and humans scattered about in small groups. They kept quiet, speaking only in hushed tones. And they all watched the sky.

Then, a brilliant series of lights appeared in the air. Beautiful bright glows cast a great deal of light onto the ground, briefly eliminating the darkness. It appeared as though a shimmering ripple was moving through the air, like the sparkle of sun off a rushing river. Flowing over the crowds, it caused several calls and claps of admiration. Within the light formation, one could see the Illumise and Volbeats who were putting on the show.

After a minute, the swarm descended to a quiet part of the meadow. On the ground were a good number of Illumise, standing near a stream. The one who had been leading the last dance joined them, while the males landed in another spot to wait for the next round. "A flawless start like always, don't you think?" the one Illumise said to the others.

"And it's The River Rush as usual," another one said. "That's your best one to the point where it's your only one."

She twitched her antennae, trying not to look as insulted as she felt. "At least you all know that whatever I do, it's to perfection. Some of you try to do too much and make all kinds of mistakes."

"Well are you gong to try any new dances this year?"

Over near the edge of the group, one of the younger Illumise looked over the group of Volbeats. She had been chosen as the leader of the next round and it would be her first light dance at a large gathering. And such an important gathering too, the midsummer courtship dances where she would chose her Volbeat partner; he would be with her until the next midsummer dances. If she messed up, then none of them would want to be with her.

Her mother tapped her abdomen. "Remember what I said, dear: relax and have fun with this." The older Illumise smiled. "You'll be leading several more rounds, and a good many of them don't care about minor mistakes in formation."

"I'll try," she said. "But it's a much larger swarm than I'm used to leading. There's so many of them."

"It makes the light show even brighter, and more beautiful. And they'll follow your lead without hesitation."

Over in the Volbeat group, the males were getting a drink of water or boasting to one another. A few of the young ones were nervous, but joined in on trying to one-up each other without breaking out into a fight. That was a definite bad move here, as the Illumise might tell them to leave the dances for the whole night, making the perpetrators unable to be chosen. Sometimes, the more devious-minded Volbeats might try to get others to pick fights with them to get rivals kicked out.

One older Volbeat found three others and waved them to come in closer, so they could talk without being overhead. "You're doing well so far, boys," he said quietly. "Seems like the next round is going to be led by a first-timer, so we'll stick around out of courtesy. The next time one of the older Illumise comes up, though, we're going to sit out one round."

"Sit out?" one of the three asked in disbelief. "But won't they see that as being lazy?"

"Yeah, we're supposed to show them how tough and strong we are," another said.

The older one nodded. "Yes, but there is a bit of strategy involved if you really want to succeed. The night is still young and everybody is full of energy. But this is going to go on without stop until the glows of dawn begin. The Illumise might not remember who takes breaks every now and then as there's so many of us. But they make their choices at dawn, and they will know who is passed out of exhaustion at that point. If you take breaks every so often, you'll still have the energy to look bright and healthy by dawn. If you try to dance in every single round, then you're definitely not going to look your best. Stick with me; I can help you learn when to sit out and when the last dozen rounds come up."

One of the younger ones smirked. "That might work for you old bugs, but I'm tough enough to do this. Just you watch." He then left to go speak with another.

"Yeah, we'll be strong enough to even fight in the morning," a second said, taking off after the other.

The third looked to them, but stayed. "Hey Dad, why are there so many people watching? The Illumise smell wonderful tonight, but some of the ones out there stink and nearly throw me off the call."

"I don't really know the answer to that," the Volbeat said. "I remember when I was your age, the crowd was maybe a third of this. But as long as they don't disrupt us too much… although that one person did smell pretty strongly of cigarettes. Was that the one who disrupted you?"

The younger one nodded. "Yeah, I almost missed my instructions last round because of that."

"Let's see if it bothered anyone else. The Illumise might let us do something if enough of us complain."

A couple minutes later, the young Illumise flew into the air over the Volbeat crowd. She produced a sweet aroma that caused the Volbeats to take off into the air after her. When in flight like this, the swarm could communicate through scents far more efficiently than through sounds. The Volbeat were trying to be interesting by being obedient to her lead. However, there was also an undercurrent of discontent. She asked what it was.

From a good number of them came the complaint that one of the witnesses was smoking a cigarette and that was disrupting communications for them. There were some parts of the swarm that assured her that she didn't have to take care of it; it was her first midsummer lead and an older Illumise could handle it. But, if this smoker disrupted her signals, then her first lead would be a disaster. So she let them know that they would handle the smoker this round instead of a regular dance, then asked them where the problem was.

She kept high while they told her where. Down below, she could see a small red glint. Since her instructions could be blocked by the smell, she informed them that they were going to dive down to surround the man, then use Flash to discomfort him with blindness. The other humans should be able to see him then, especially if some of the Volbeat kept alit longer to reveal the issue. From what she had encountered with humans, they would help Pokémon with such troubles.

They did as she said, diving down when she directed them to. When they got close to the smoker, the conflicting smells gave her a chaotic mess of signals. No wonder the Volbeats didn't like it. As planned, she used Flash, which visually signaled them to do the same. The scene briefly turned brighter than noontime daylight, causing anyone nearby, not just the smoker, to try covering their eyes. Before long, a park ranger came up to the man and spoke sharply to him.

Flickering her light at normal brightness, she rose up and tried to give the signal for the rest to do the same, including the light flicker to get anyone who was still confused by the smoke. When she had the swarm back up, the ranger was taking the smoker away. She led them back to the stream, ending her round even though she hadn't used a pattern dance.

"What was that about?" the leader of the former round asked. "That was no pattern."

"There was a smoker in the crowd," she said. "And, um, he was throwing off the Volbeats, so I helped them get rid of the smells."

"But you were supposed to make a beautiful dance," she scolded.

"No, no," another Illumise said. "I think that was the responsible thing to do. If the smell got spread and set in, then all of our dances would have been thrown off. Good choice."

"Yeah, that's the kind of decision you'd want a swarm leader to make," another said.

The one bug fumed silently, but the young one felt proud.

…

Sapphire entry: Volbeat's tail glows like a lightbulb. With other Volbeat, it uses its tail to draw geometric shapes in the night sky. This Pokemon loves the sweet aroma given off by Illumise.

Illumise Emerald entry: A nocturnal Pokemon that becomes active upon nightfall. It leads a Volbeat swarm to draw patterns in the night sky. Over 200 different patterns have been confirmed.

Some insects communicate through scents rather than smells; ants are one that I'm certain are this way. I don't know if fireflies are the same way, but it works for this particular story. I was going to do this pair for Valentines Day months ago, but they really do work better for the summer solstice. Happy summer (for fellow northern hemisphere residents)!