The first rule of ensuring continuous safety of a group, was to get rid of all its predators. Anything threatening the group in any meaningful capacity had to be eradicated, even if it came at the cost of countless lives. The effects in the long run outweighed any sacrifice that did not outright doom the group.

Her Combees were weak. They had countless possible predators in any place they relocated to. However, there was one kin that posed far greater threat to the safety of the Hive than any other.

Humans.

A single Fire Type could kill dozens, hundreds, if not thousands of Combees in a span of a day. A flock of Flying Types would've treated them as a food source, tapping into their numbers daily. A Rock or Steel Type could crush them with little fear of retaliation.

A single human could use all of these types and more to wreak untold destruction unto the Hive. While physically weaker, this kin provided the same advantage to Pokemon as she did to her Hive - a sense of direction, and the ability to manage them on both small and large scale. And while a single human could not possibly compare to her own mental capabilities, a dozen of humans? A hundred? A thousand? Could be a serious problem.

While their kin persisted, the Hive was never truly safe - which was why she had to eliminate all humans. And the first step to do so was to gather enough resources from this area to conquer the city on the South-West. By her estimates, she needed another sixty to a hundred days to do so.

In the meantime, she had to play it safe. Allow humans to enter her territories - as long as they did not venture too far, and did not see too much. If they did, they needed to be taken down. So far, there were seven humans who disappeared in her territory. And this number was about to rise to eight.

The human in question was covered from head to toe in human 'clothes' that looked like a poor attempt at mimicking appearance of a Goodra. With them, was an Absol who was arguably in a worse condition than most Pokemon from her Villages. The two were slowly walking into her territory, keeping an eye out, and yelling something every few minutes.

Were they looking for someone? Nobody entered these lands for many days, so it was unlikely. Were they looking for her? How did they even know about her? Either way, she made sure to keep her Combees hidden, and watched.

The two of them veered closer and closer to one of the Villages.

Too close.

They were up to something.

The easiest way to deal with a human was to perform a surprise attack, eliminating them before they could possibly call for any of their servant Pokemon. Having no effective command, their Pokemon were easy enough to deal with. And so, with that in mind, she called upon her forces to converge on the perimeter of the intruders' position, and gave the command for the detonation squads to start climbing into the air.

Technically, an individual Combee could only learn a handful of weak moves that served well enough for survival in a hospitable enough location. This meant that a swarm of normal Combees was only somewhat stronger, than a sum of its parts.

Her children were far more effective than that.

The detonation squads subsided on a special diet of fruits and herbs that caused them to produce a toxic, almost unsustainable amount of flammable gas in their digestive systems. This gave them a low lifespan and poor manoeuvrability, making them completely useless in a direct confrontation.

It was not, however, a problem in their intended role.

Once the detonation squads climbed to a sufficient height, they were given a simple order - to simultaneously plummet head first into their target. Each was carrying a couple of flints to both cause a spark, and to make them just heavy enough to ignore most of the wind resistance and air pressure. Each used their limited flight capabilities to accelerate, and course correct to make sure they struck their target.

Ten Combees simultaneously plummeted from the sky, quickly converging on the human.

Five seconds to impact…

Four…

Three…

Two…

Suddenly, the Absol snapped her head upwards.

One-

Mere moments before the Combees struck against their target, the Absol blurred into motion, slamming into the human and sending them flying at breakneck speeds. The Dark Type herself managed to summersault back a few paces - and then the first Combees squashed against the ground, sending out both sparks and the gas, and causing a chain of explosions.

The human slammed into a nearby tree at an odd angle, and then fell to the ground, clutching at their ribcage. Possible fractured or broken ribs. Not enough damage to kill. She sent ten more detonation squad Combees to that location.

The Absol was caught at the edge of the shockwave, rolling and skidding across the ground before coming to a halt. Minor burns, scrapes and bruises. Still in the position to fight. She sent out the slingshot squads.

The slingshot squads had a similar role to the detonation squads. Except instead of methane, they were carrying heavy stones in their digestive systems - which made them far easier and quicker to prepare for battle. These Combees also used gravity to do most of the work. Just like the detonation squads, they died upon delivering their blow, but the sheer power this allowed for could not be underestimated - they could crack rocks, or deliver lethal blows in one or two successful attacks. And since unlike the detonation squads, they were not effectively sick, she had far more precision with them.

The Absol yelled something, though she paid no attention to this, instead sending volleys of slingshot squad Combees at the Dark Type, and redirecting her mental gaze to the human, who was five seconds away from the second attack of the detonation squad. Seemingly unbeknownst to this, they pulled something out of their clothes.

Four…

It was some sort of a box with a cap.

Three…

They struggled to open it.

Two…

They finally opened the cap, revealing a single button. A detonator?

One…

They pressed the button.

This time, the Absol was too busy evading attacks from the slingshot squad to interfere. The chain explosion of Combees snapped the nearby tree in half, and charred the surroundings. Few humans were lucky enough to survive a direct hit like this.

Except, this human was standing next to the Absol now, blurring into motion every time a slingshot squad Combee descended on their position, and somehow striking them out of the air.

Not a human, it seemed.

Possibility: Zoroark, or Ditto. Currently designated as 'human'.

Either way, this called for a change in strategy.

Keeping the slingshot squad volley active, she deployed the venom squad. This tactic only became available once she had other Pokemon labouring under the Hive. The venom squad was a floating designation, only applied on the spot, via entire jars of contact venom, collected from the Villages. The Combees in question were to dip their entire bodies in a coating agent, and then in the contact venom, before committing to their attacks. This time, she had designated one third of the slingshot squad on standby into the venom squad, while keeping an eye on the intruders.

They were on the move.

The 'human' and Absol were running at high speeds in the direction of the Village, stopping every few seconds to deflect another attack of her Combees.

In order to slow them down, she sent out ten detonation squad Combees to drop in a wide line blocking their path. Then, a few volleys of slingshot squad Combees, mixed with venom squad.

The intruders could not tell the difference.

The 'human' was quick to deflect a venom-coated Combee, and suffered for it - wherever those coverings were an illusion, or cloth, the contact venom seeped through, delivering the intended payload of toxins. Now, if they were a Pokemon, they just needed a medicine to heal - and she just needed to send another venom-coated Combee at them. If they were a human, or something human-like, they were out of the fight. Not that she was stopping with the volleys - she sent more and more at both 'human' and Absol, to overwhelm and eliminate them.

Both were too dangerous to be kept alive, so she had to-

"I hope I did not interrupt anything~" a sudden voice behind her sounded.

She turned back, to see several spears of ice quickly grow out of the ground, stopping a breath away from her face. Behind the spears, out of thin air, appeared a Glaceon.

He looked at her with a self-assured smirk.

"I'm here to have a little talk~"