A bright flash of light released her back into the world, and her eyes promptly focused on the opponent - a big, orange, winged lizard with a flame at the end of the tail. A bit scratched and tired, but still raring to go.

"Let's see you get through Vespiquen!" Hiveguard yelled in that usual exaggerated fashion.

"Charizard, Flamethrower!"

"Toxic!"

Before she could even fire off her attack, a powerful flame washed over her entire body.

It burned.

By the time it ended, she was hurt all over, but still conscious. The lizard was too surprised by this fact to dodge a glob of potent contact venom. She took a bite of some food Hiveguard gave her for these fights, and channeled just enough energy into it to restore the amount eaten.

"Famethrower again!"

"I'm using a Hyper Potion!"

The medicine hit her before the flames did, allowing her a swift reprieve from the pain, before she was burned all over again. The lizard winced once more, and she took another bite of her food.

"Again," Hiveguard simply commanded.

"I'm using Antidote!"

The other human applied some medicine to cure the lizard of the poisoning, only for another glob of venom to wash over the scaly snout. She took another bite of the food.

"Damn it! Use Flamethrower again!"

"Roost."

The flames washed over her again, she was barely conscious. Still, she landed, and used some energy to recover from her wounds. The lizard winced again, looking at her in clear annoyance. She took another bite of the food.

"Flamethro-" the lizard growls in return, He had no energy for that left, "DAMMIT! Fire Fang!"

"Roost!"

The lizard quickly approached her, and sank sharp teeth that were emanating pure heat into her extended arm.

It hurt.

Still, she sank to the ground, taking a few precious moments to recover from her wounds. The lizard winced again. She took another bite of the food.

"Another Fire Fang!"

"Substitute!"

The other human looked downright panicked at the command, as the lizard approached her to take another bite. This time, the teeth sank into her abdomen, and rather than executing the command to make a Substitute, she couldn't help but shudder, and hold her injured midsection, as the dark, oozing, throbbing pain pulsed through her body. Still, in a few moments, the pain subsided somewhat. She took another bite of her food.

"We've got them! Finish with Fire Fang!"

"Good job," instead of giving a command, Hiveguard congratulated her.

Next moment, the lizard's eyes glazed over, and the giant orange body fell to the ground with a loud thud, unconscious.

"The challenger is out of Pokemon, and loses this Gym battle!" a voice declared. The other human recalled the lizard, and then stomped out of the room.

She flied closer to the Hiveguard, barely clinging to consciousness. He used some medicine to make her wounds better, and then patted her on the head.

"You've done amazingly today," he smiled, at which she nodded shortly. He once again said something, but this time, Hiveguard's voice felt distant and fading, as the pain in the arm bitten by the lizard flared.

She let out a pained buzz, and grabbed at the wounded appendage - only to find none. Looking back at the Hiveguard - she did not find him either, only empty, dark void that echoed her voice still.

The pain in her missing arm flared up even more, burning as if the lizard was still breathing fire at her-

-and her mind's gaze refocused on the material world, as she grabbed at the hurting arm.

Still missing.

Despite her arm being completely gone past mid-shoulder, it was currently in pain a short distance below the elbow. This pain was steadily but surely dulling, but the fact that the sensation was there in the first place seemed to be a repeating logical paradox. She failed to find a reason for something missing to still hurt, and yet she had no other way than to accept it as a constant factor in her life.

At the end of the day, pain was data. And not all data was created equal.

This returning pain could not be acted upon in any logical capacity. It held no inherent value. It did not provide any sensible adjustments to other data. During the day, she was able to put this pain at the very end of the priority list, although even at its dullest, it still occupied a small fraction of her attention.

During the night, though, it was more difficult to put things into perspective.

Whenever she went to sleep, she gave the task to her night guard Combees to patrol the territory, and to keep constant watch around her. They provided her with a steady stream of neutral information, with any abnormalities - be it a Pokemon out past curfew, a human being spotted, or a Combee being attacked or dying - causing a spike in data that immediately alerted and woke her up. This allowed her to react to any dangers nearly instantly even as she slept.

Still, while the system worked against outside threats, she could not do anything about her own mind. Yes, she was able to process and compartmentalise junk data when she was awake - but not in her sleep. Pain she could do nothing about. Emotions in general. Memories about Hiveguard. These were all junk data she saw no use in.

Yet they still clung to her.

And she could do nothing about it. In that sense, her children were more fortunate - they had no worries, no feelings, no unnecessary things boggling their minds. Just the commands she provided. She made sure this was the case, for the sake of the Hive as a whole. Among the entire Hive, her mind alone was prone to the imperfections of junk data, and yet said mind was also Hive's greatest weapon.

She had no guarantee that finding a way to fix the issue of this useless data would not lower her efficiency. She had no point of reference for that, nor was she in the position to experiment. No, her one and only priority was the safety and prosperity of the Hive - so she was forced to learn to deal with these imperfections, and not let them stand in her way.

Even so, junk data was dangerous. It could cloud one's judgement and rationale. Often, she used it to her advantage. The Pokemon living in her territory, for example, were boggled with an insurmountable amount of negative emotions that resulted in dulling their psyches into mindless compliance. During her war with the three Villages, she first used enemy's arrogance to tilt the scales in her favour, then their fear to gain access to the much needed extra resources, and then their desperation to weed out those who would cause troubles to her regime. Now, she was using fear of the unknown to keep humans at bay, as she was amassing enough resources and numbers for her next move.

Not that she was immune to this influence herself - meeting that human's Incineroar had been an insignificant, calculated risk, but it was a risk nonetheless. Regardless of the amount of satisfaction it brought her to see him reduced to nothing before her own eyes, it ran contrary to the continuous safety of the Hive. Though now that she knew the allure and the aftermath of acting upon such data, she was not going to make that same mistake anymore.

Suddenly, just as she was about to go back to sleep, a data spike drew her attention.

Intruders.