Chapter 3 – Revenge of the Swarm
For such a tiny pokémon, the sableye was quite intimidating. Grinning rather widely, the ghost revealed a mouth full of glistening, and sharp, white teeth.
"That… that's the flash I saw when we first entered," Kimiko said suddenly, pointing at the new ghost. "Those eyes…"
Thorn shot out her vines and whipped the ground in front of her, but the small ghost continued to creep closer, ignoring her warning. Still shaking, she growled at the newcomer, but again, the sableye showed no fear. Instead, it continued to advance, and this time it hissed something back at Thorn.
Whatever that was, it seemed to make Thorn angry. Alex and Kimiko simply watched as the chikorita leapt forward, vines whipping all over, at the sableye. The dark-type lunged forwards as well, nimbly avoiding Thorn's attack and scratching her side with its sharp claws as they took on an eerie purple aura. The grass-type let out a cry as the shadow claw attack drew blood.
Astonishingly, Thorn didn't miss a beat as she landed, albeit rather clumsily, spun around, and whipped her head leaf, sending a flurry of razor leaf at the ghost. Sableye, just as quick on the draw, countered by firing several small but quick blasts of light from the jewels on its chest. The light attack was spot-on, knocking down every leaf Thorn had conjured.
"Power gem," Alex noted, trying to remain wary of the rest of the ghosts while still following the battle. At least none of them had moved. Yet. "And shadow claw… be careful Thorn, it's more powerful than it looks!"
"Rita!" his pokémon answered, crouching down and growling again.
"You… you can't seriously… think we can fight our way out?" Kimiko stuttered.
"Not much choice, is there?" Alex responded. "Thorn, try vine whip again!"
Thorn launched her vines towards sableye once again, but unlike before, although sableye managed to slip aside once again, one of her vines did trip up the ghost, causing it to stumble slightly and land on one knee. The sableye's grin vanished then, to be replaced by a death glare – which, considering sableye have no eyelids, managed to look frightening just the same.
Sableye snapped its fingers and let out a cry. At once, the ghosts surrounding the small group sprang into action, swooping and screeching all over. Kimiko screamed as Alex pulled her to the ground to avoid them. Radar dove under the blankets to hide, while Thorn lashed out at any ghost who came close, but there were so many, she couldn't keep up. Another attack deepened her existing wound.
And then, after a loud explosion, the screeching and swooping came to a fierce halt; then the banette who had been making the noise slammed hard into the ground, failing to de-solidify its body in time. The rest of the ghosts stopped whooshing around and shifted their attention to their fallen comrade. Sableye even twisted around with a curious "Sable?"
Seconds later, a familiar buzzing sound filled the cold night air. Led by their shiny leader, the beedrill swarm shot out of the darkness, their eyes glowing red (and blue, in the case of the leader). Alex began to panic; The chance of fighting off just the dozen or so ghosts was nearly impossible, which meant the chance they could fight off the ghosts and the beedrill together was virtually zero. So, he was quite surprised when, as the chaos resumed, the forest ghosts and the beedrill engaged each other in combat.
As the battle developed above them, Alex and Kimiko began hastily packing up their camp gear. Meanwhile, the sableye turned its attention back towards Thorn, who had run back towards her trainer, and with an angry hiss launched another power gem towards her. The attack, however, was deflected by none other than the shiny beedrill leader. After letting its baby weedle off its back, it turned and buzzed a challenge at the sableye, jabbing out a stinger threateningly. The angry ghost-type was more than willing to accept, and the two dived for each other.
Radar set down a stray pokéball in Kimiko's lap as she shoved one of the blankets into her green bag. Just as she picked up the stray pokéball and attempted to stuff it into her now overflowing bag, two large hands gripped her upper arms. She screamed as a dusknoir lifted her into the air, dropping the pokéball as she flailed helplessly. Radar let out a whine and gripped her foot, trying to pull her down but instead being carried away with his trainer. Alex looked up towards her scream as she was lifted towards the treetops.
After a flash of red light from somewhere below her, two beedrill swooped in, stingers glowing in preparation for a twineedle attack. Without a word from the dusknoir, however, they were shot down by two shadow balls, courtesy of two of the duskull that accompanied and defended their parent. Two further beedrill launched themselves at the duskull, but again were shot down, this time by two dark purple blasts of night shade from the ghosts' eyes.
"Thorn, get her down! Use your vines!" Alex called desperately. Thorn obeyed, but halfway there Alex saw her freeze, then turn to look at her own vines with surprise, as though she'd never seen them before. Then a third duskull drifted into view, it's single eye glowing purple from its disable technique. This duskull had the slightest hint of a leaf lodged in its eye socket – the same duskull that Thorn had struck with her leech seed earlier in the night, apparently wanting revenge. The duskull engaged Thorn in a battle of their own, launching night shade and razor leaf attacks at each other respectively. Meanwhile, the dusknoir continued lifting a squirming Kimiko higher above the battle.
The huge ghost-type let out a booming laugh, causing Kimiko's loudest scream yet. The two duskull continued to shoot down any beedrill who got too close, while sableye continued to keep the beedrill leader occupied and Thorn was too busy fending off the third duskull to help. Alex watched helplessly from below as Kimiko was lifted just out of range of his flashlight – but not before he caught sight of a small blue blur shooting up her leg.
"Radar?" Kimiko stuttered between cries. Still shivering with as if in the midst of an earthquake and with tears in his eyes, Radar perched himself on Kimiko's shoulder and glared the dusknoir straight in the eye. Kimiko knew it was hopeless, whatever her mudkip was trying to do; he hadn't learned any attacks yet that could even damage the bulky ghost, let alone defeat it. The dusknoir simply laughed as Radar inhaled a large breath. Then, with a loud "KIIIIIIIP!" Radar let out a blast of water from his mouth, directly into dusknoir's eye.
The large ghost howled, either in pain or just surprise, releasing its grip on Kimiko to cover its single eye and leaving the girl and her mudkip to fall screaming back towards the ground. Several pokémon, ghosts and bees alike, scattered as the pair shot by them. Alex dove underneath and raised his arms; he just managed to catch Kimiko, but gravity was too much for him and she crashed to the ground on top of him, Radar landing safely in Kimiko's hair.
"Are you okay?" both humans asked at once. Before either one could answer, something flew above them – the shiny beedrill leader, blasted back by a power gem and slammed hard into a tree before crumpling to the ground. The baby weedle let out a cry and inched away after his mother. The sableye, looking thirsty for more, stepped up to the humans, still sprawled out on the ground. It grinned wickedly for a moment – and then its face was rammed hard into the dirt by Thorn, who had bounded up from behind with her vines blazing once again. The duskull she had been battling broke off upon hearing its parent cry out.
"My back…" Alex winced. Kimiko lifted herself off her boyfriend and then helped him into a sitting position. He reached behind him and produced the fallen pokéball that Kimiko had dropped earlier. He handed it back to her. Thorn bounded up to them with concern as the sableye regained its footing.
All around them, the ghosts were beginning to retreat as the beedrill swarm gained the upper hand. The sableye, however, was not so eager to give in. Still grinning, it hurled another power gem at the group. The tiny grass-type countered by shooting a razor leaf barrage again, deflecting most of the light attack. Sableye relentlessly launched a blob of ghostly purple energy at Thorn, who appeared to be still standing purely due to adrenaline at this point. In response and with no small amount of effort, the grass-type swung her leaf at the ball and batted it away – right back at the sableye. The ghost was not prepared for that counterattack and was thrown back when the purplish ball exploded on contact.
"Let's try this again," Alex said, now on his feet, a new pokéball in hand. He aimed carefully and hurled the capsule at the fallen sableye. It made contact, opened, and sucked the ghost inside in a flash of red light. The ball landed on the ground and shook violently as sableye tried to escape, every eye remaining in the area now on it. Eventually, though, the ball slowed, until finally coming still with a ping.
The ghosts that still lingered finally fled upon losing their ringleader, and the remaining beedrill took off in pursuit. Thorn immediately collapsed from exhaustion, panting heavily, her side still bleeding lightly. Kimiko fell to her knees, trying her best to hold back the tears in her eyes and failing. Radar crawled into her lap and she lifted him into her arms, cradling him close as she tried to stifle the sound of her crying. Alex limped to his pokémon and gingerly lifted her into his arms, petting her leaf before moving to pick up his new pokémon. He set the pokéball and the chikorita down on the blanket that was half-shoved into Kimiko's backpack and half crumpled on the dirt, before kneeling down himself. Without a word, he wrapped his arms tightly around his girlfriend, pulling her close. Radar squeaked as he dove to safety before being squished, but neither human noticed after that.
"Are you okay?" Alex whispered.
"Mmm…" was all Kimiko said in response. Alex could feel her body trembling. Not that he blamed her after all she just suffered through. At his insistence, no ness.
"Listen…" Alex continued, affectionately brushing his hand through Kimiko's hair. "I'm really sorry about all this… I just thought spending the night here would be a fun little experience to get started with… I never expected anything to actually happen… it was stupid… it was a stupid idea. We were so unprepared… I…"
Kimiko didn't answer. She simply sat there, shaking like a leaf in her lover's arms, though at least it sounded like she'd managed to control her crying now. Alex sighed and cast a glance over at Thorn, lying still on the blanket next to the pokéball that now contained his new sableye. Her eyes were closed; he had no idea if she had passed out from exhaustion or if she'd simply fallen asleep. Alex groaned, feeling even worse. Not only had he almost gotten Kimiko captured and taken to who knows where, but he also pushed his own pokémon far beyond her limits, relied on her to keep them safe. She did an unbelievably remarkable job for such a young, inexperienced pokémon, there was no denying that, but as Alex stared at her bloody body, couldn't help but feel guilty at the state of her, another result of his poor decision.
And then there was the mudkip, curled up next to Thorn, eyes wide open and shaking just as much as his trainer, his head darting around as if expecting to be attacked from all sides at any second. The little water-type's quick thinking was the only reason Kimiko was safe; a miracle in itself. He made a mental note to reward them both the next day, when everyone had time to recover. He pulled his arms away, meaning to go for his backpack and heal up the pokémon, but suddenly was restrained as Kimiko threw her own arms around him, instead. She still refused to look up, however.
Alex hesitated, but only for a moment before he held her close once again. As much as he felt that sitting still was a bad idea, he figured it was safe enough to give her another few minutes to compose herself. His guilt was only worsened, though, as he sat there helpless to comfort her; this was far from normal behavior for his girlfriend, and he wasn't quite sure how to even begin to console her.
She hated feeling vulnerable and hated showing it even more, preferring to put on a brave face and deal with her true feelings when she was alone. Usually, she was rather good at it, too. She chalked it up to wanting to be an actress (although there were numerous things she wanted to be over the years – including softball player, guitarist, and even singer in Alex's band – all of which she'd actively pursued and practiced at one point or another). Alex wondered briefly what was so different about this incident to cause such an uncontrollable response in her usually flawless performance, but it didn't take long for him to scold himself for that thought. Most people's daily emotional stress didn't involve getting kidnapped by a rogue ghost.
Unable to think of how to go about helping her in this abnormal situation, Alex looked around to make sure there was no new trouble stirring. His heart somehow managed to sink even further as he saw the injured shiny beedrill lying against the same tree it was flung into earlier. So, not only had he caused such pain in his own pokémon and his girlfriend, but he had allowed the forest beedrill to come to harm to protect them. He knew they really hadn't had much choice in the matter at the time if they wanted to escape alive, but right now, that didn't feel like much consolation. The baby weedle looked calm, at least, if quiet. Alex took that to mean that at least the beedrill wasn't too badly injured. Either way, it was his fault the pokémon was hurt now, and it was his responsibility to make sure it recovered, at the very least. Again, he pulled away and attempted to stand up. Kimiko made a slight sound of protest.
"We should go," he said, squeezing her tight one last time. "I need to check on the beedrill, too… and I don't think we should stay in here. We should leave and try to get to the next city, or at least get outside the forest where it's safer."
Kimiko made another slight groan, but slowly retracted her arms from around him, instead scrubbing the remaining water from her eyes with the back of her hands. Alex stood up, grabbed his backpack, and made his way over to the beedrill. Pulling out a potion, he addressed the bug.
"Hey… this is going to sting a bit," he said. "But it will help you heal. It's the same stuff we used on your baby." He gestured to the baby weedle. Weedle, upon seeing the bottle, squealed as it remembered the unpleasant burning as the substance seeped into its cuts, but the beedrill nodded in acceptance; it clearly understood what he was saying to it. Definitely had a trainer before, Alex thought. Putting his lab work knowledge to use, Alex carefully lifted the bee's forearm stingers and sprayed them both. As expected, the bee buzzed furiously at the burning sensation, and Alex fell backwards in his haste to back off, in case the bee decided to aim the stinger in his direction.
As it turned out, the beedrill had no interest in attacking. As it calmed down, it managed to lift its head and look Alex in the eye. They gazed at each other for a few seconds, before it started to buzz its wings and managed to lift off the ground. Alex stood back up, and the beedrill hovered higher, to his eye level.
"Thank you," he said. "You and your swarm saved us back there. But… why…?"
In response, the beedrill hissed something before raising a stinger and pointing it first at Alex, then to the baby weedle, then to itself, then back to Alex.
He tilted his head, puzzled, but he didn't have time to think about what that meant. "I think I understand," Kimiko said suddenly, causing him to jump. Her voice was steady, though there was still an edge to it; she was still in shock. "We protected its baby from those duskull… so it protected us in return. Now we're even."
The beedrill nodded in agreement. Then it pointed its stinger down the path.
That, at least, was obvious. "Yeah… we're not staying the night," Alex confirmed.
But the beedrill didn't seem to accept this answer. It casually collected the baby weedle, then started to fly down the path. It stopped after a few feet, pointed a stinger at itself, then again down into the darkness.
"I don't understand…"
The beedrill sighed, or at least, some buzzing sound equivalent of it, accompanied by a hanging of its head. It then swung a stinger towards it, as if beckoning them closer.
"It wants us to follow it?" came Kimiko's voice. It came out as a question. The beedrill again nodded in confirmation.
"Where?" Alex asked. He immediately regretted showing that hint of curiosity as the beedrill buzzed angrily, jabbing its stinger sharply out towards the path. Apparently, they didn't have much of a choice.
"I don't know, but maybe we should go…" Kimiko said, her voice breaking again. "I mean… it… they did just… save us…"
"Yeah… good point," Alex admitted.
It only took the pair a few minutes to gather up the remains of their campsite, having thrown most of it into their bags during the attack, albeit rather messily. They recalled Thorn and Radar to their pokéballs for rest, picked up their now overflowing backpacks, and started off after the beedrill. The bee turned as they approached, and hovered down the dirt path before them.
Although they were exhausted and hungry, Alex and Kimiko followed the beedrill for over an hour through the forest. Thankfully, though the bushes occasionally shook or there was a random cry in the darkness, no further pokémon got in their way. Most likely, as Alex pointed out, courtesy of the beedrill swarm. The buzzing of their guide sounded deafening in the otherwise quiet night. As it turned out, the beedrill led them down a road that led straight out of the Whispering Forest.
The pair whispered hasty but sincere thanks to the beedrill as the moonlight finally shone throughout the sky. The beedrill buzzed something akin to a "thank you" of its own before turning and returning into the depths of the trees. As tired as they were, Kimiko had no desire to set up camp anywhere near the forest outskirts, and insisted that they continue walking. Alex agreed, and they were off.
They had no idea how long they walked for. It was beyond three in the morning when they finally entered a small city. Thankfully, the pokémon center wasn't too hard to find.
Kimiko headed immediately for the bed when they entered their room. Alex pulled out one of the blankets from his backpack, but upon spreading it out on the floor, Kimiko insisted they share the bed, claiming there was no reason they both couldn't enjoy a peaceful sleep. There was still that edge to her voice, though, and Alex believed she was still too shaken and afraid to want to be alone. He lay down in the bed with a sigh as Kimiko moved up against the wall to make as much room as possible for him. As soon as he was in place, she wrapped her arms around him, kissed his cheek, and laid her head on his chest. Alex put an arm loosely around her shoulders, but he didn't think she even felt him.
A/N: Alright, just wanted to point this out here. That cliché beedrill attack thing in the previous chapter? Totally intentional. I wanted to redeem them somehow, turn the bees into the "good guys" for once. Granted, it wasn't purely out of the goodness of their hearts, but I'm satisfied with this result.