Group Info Group Founded 10 Years ago 99 Members
13,864 Pageviews87 Watchers

Announcement

This group will be migrated to the new design soon. Please contact the group admins to start the migration and save content the group may lose access to.

Gallery Folders

Featured
May Doll by Sner2000
anime
About Roy - Sobre Roy (Eng/Esp) by laAlquimistadePlata
Viajes Journeys 55 (Eng/Esp) by laAlquimistadePlata
Furret y Pikachu Vamos a Chambear by gonzalossj3
Roy 1ros pensamientos - 1st thoughts by laAlquimistadePlata
games
Hisui descendants (Esp - Eng) by laAlquimistadePlata
PokeMas - Paulo the villain 4 (Eng/Esp) by laAlquimistadePlata
PokeMas - Paulo the villain 3 (Eng/Esp) by laAlquimistadePlata
Pokemas - Jirachi event pt. 2-2 by laAlquimistadePlata
Manga
Whitwo [Manga Coloring] by MeryNatsumi
Whitwo [Manga Coloring] by MeryNatsumi
White [Manga Coloring] by MeryNatsumi
Bianca [Manga Coloring] by MeryNatsumi
shippings
Clemont and Opal Under the Mistletoe by OpalSparks
Trouble With Past Love Interests - Part 2 by OpalSparks
Trouble With Past Love Interests - Part 1 by OpalSparks
Clemont and Opal with Plusle and Minun by OpalSparks
pokemon on their own
Pyroar and Pikachu by RobynHillZoneAct25
Espeon and Sylveon by ChikoritaMoon
Sen-to's Art (Cover Photo) by ChikoritaMoon
Sylveon-chan~ by ChikoritaMoon
poke fan characters
Mira Cabaletta - Pokemon OC by OpalSparks
Fankid | Jane [Boast] by Nathy-Marisson
A bond between us by louverusee
[CM] Reading in flower field by louverusee
pokeballs and badges
Random pokeball :3 XD by Fran48
PacMan Ball by Jonathanjo
Various Pokemon type symbols by chui92
The YouTube Ball by Jonathanjo
fanfics and journals
Part 3 - Hum Of A Thousand Bugs [2/2]A rather uneventful half hour passes, with not much chattering in general. Except for Petra attempting to have a conversation with Zenton, and him being indifferent to the idea this time around. Simon and Kiwi, as usual, are at the front of the group.“Hey.” Simon hears Kiwi address her, and looks over at him. “What do you think?” he asks.She sighs and then looks off to one side, saying “He’s a brat.”“Yeah I figured,” Kiwi replies. “He likes getting into trouble. Makes him a hassle to keep up with. Most days it’s either that or sparring with the guards. Some of us don’t quite like that, but, lesser of two evils, you know.” All the while, the dirt path is slowly accompanied by leaves that increase in number. “Plus the guards don’t mind the battle practice, so I guess it works out. Course he’s also a flirt. Combine that with his good looks, and of course all the new flowers want him.”Simon sighs. “When you put it that way...” she mutters.Kiwi continues. “Yeah. Spoiled brat, selfish, picky eater, all that.”“Great. And he’s the prince,” she replies, sighing afterward. “Of all the possible heirs for those two to have.”As the leaves become increasingly numerous, Carson, who is all the way in the back behind Kanani and the wagon, steps on a clump of leaves, and feels the “ground” underneath give out as he falls through the hole under it. Two of the guards also fall through holes indicated by the leaf clumps.“Well, they also have a daughter,” Kiwi continues again. “Her name’s Pearl. Probably the sweetest person I know. She’s almost like an angel.”“Oh. So she takes more after her mother than...whoever Zenton takes after,” Simon says.Meanwhile, Kanani then looks back and sees no one, then stops walking. She looks around for a bit before hearing what sounds like sticks cracking, and looks below her before falling through a different hole. Both sounds are drowned out by the wagon’s sounds.“Yyyeah...” Kiwi says, sweatdropping. “You wanna know who she wants to take after?”“Joy...” Simon says monotonically, looking off to one side again with an annoyed look on her face.Then the two of them look at the ground below them, and notice all the leaves. They look shocked, then stop and order everyone else to stop as well.“Didn’t the wasp queen warn us about scattered leaves?” Kiwi asks.Petra sighs. “Guess we all got too carried away to notice the change.”Simon, meanwhile, looks back and notices that both Carson and Kanani are missing, along with two of the other guards. She does, however, see a handful of holes some distance apart from each other. “These holes...” Simon says to herself. Petra and Kiwi hear this“What about them?” Kiwi asks.Simon is silent for a second or two, before replying “The wasp queen told us to be on the lookout for scattered leaves. Said the pitfalls are covered by leaves and sticks.” She looks down at the ground, silent for another second. “Are we...right over their nest?” The others all react in shock.“Are you serious?” Kiwi asks.Then, Simon notices to her left a somewhat large pile of leaves near some bushes and trees. She approaches the leaves, summoning her sword, and then cuts up both them and the wooden sticks underneath, revealing a large hole that the sticks and leaves fall through. Zenton and Petra approach the hole as well.“Well, we have our way in,” Simon tells the two. She then tells Coronet [Hey, you there?]“Yes ma’am,” Coronet says. “What’s the update?”Simon explains [We just discovered an underground bugs’ nest. Carson and Kanani fell down into some disguised pitfalls leading into the nest. So did two of the guards, from our count. We found a much larger pitfall close by, most likely the main entrance. Petra, Zenton, and I will be descending into the nest from here in order to rescue them. Link up with Kiwi. He’ll be leading the expedition group out of the jungle while we’re separated.]“Yes ma’am,” Coronet acknowledges. “Good luck down there.”Simon then turns around and addresses Kiwi. “You guide the others out of this jungle, and help the guards keep ‘em safe,” she tells him. “Be sure to keep Coronet appraised. We’ll catch up once we’re done inside this nest.” Kiwi nods.Simon then falls backward into the hole, spinning 180 degrees and going into a nosedive. Petra comments “She’s something” before looking at Zenton for a brief moment then looking away. Then she says “Let’s go” before jumping into the hole, with Zenton following.“Don’t overdo it,” Kiwi tells them with an uneasy look. “My job’s hard enough as is.”. . .After another few seconds of nosediving, she readies herself for a superhero landing, which she does once she hits the ground. She gets up and looks around, seeing nothing but dirt, moss, and glowing crystals. Said crystals are emitting a constant dark gray light that just barely illuminates the area enough for her to see. Three pathways branch out from here - one directly in front of her, one to the left, and one to the right. She then hears Petra and Zenton landing as well, and turns around to face them.“Good, you’ve arrived,” she tells them.Zenton scoffs and says “Of course we did.”“Not in the mood, prince,” Simon chastises him with an annoyed look, which leads him to groan. “Anyway. We have three pathways to go through. We’ll each take one. Don’t wanna waste too much time down here, especially when this place is bound to house dozens of these bug Pokemon.”Petra acknowledges, while Zenton puts a smile on his face saying “Finally, something exciting.”Simon tells them “I’ll take the middle path. You two choose who gets left or right.”“I’ll go right,” Petra says, leaving Zenton with the left path.Simon nods. “Well, you know the objective. Let’s get this done ASAP.” Simon then approaches the middle pathway, saying “Good luck” as she enters it.Petra and Zenton look at each other for a second, before nodding and walking away from each other into their respective pathways.Simon’s hallway, which is currently just a straight path, is barely illuminated by the same dark gray crystals. Simon, however, looks like she is having difficulty seeing while walking through. “Psst, hey,” she whispers towards her coat. The Meltan’s eye emerges from under her collar. “You have night vision, correct?” The Meltan nods. “Good. I want you to look through these hallways, and give me a sign if there're any side paths.” The Meltan nods twice, and looks forward.A few seconds pass before the meltan makes noises toward Simon. “Hm? You see something?” she asks. Then she looks ahead and notices an intersection, with three paths to choose from. “Three hallways. Which one do we choose? They all look the same.” Then they hear a faint insectoid sound at the far end of the pathway to their right. “Maybe it’s one of the guards. Let’s check it out.”Simon then walks down that hallway, and after a few seconds, comes to a small room that looks a bit more illuminated than the hallways. The corpse of a green bladed bug lies face down on the ground, with two Firokes and a Harylect around it eating portions of its body. Each open wound on the corpse is seemingly covered up by some mysterious blackness that blots them and makes each of them very unclear. The three live bugs, however, hear Simon’s footsteps getting louder and quickly look towards her. She, with her sword already summoned, swiftly swings at all three of them separately, killing all three in a single slice each. She then dismisses her sword and approaches the Scyther’s corpse, kneeling in front of it to appraise it.“Looks to be independent,” she says. “One of the hives must’ve hired it for a scouting mission inside this nest. Must’ve covered a good distance; None of the holes we went through were uncovered, unless they covered them up after killing this one.” She then notices under its left blade a rolled up map, which she grabs and pulls out. She walks away from the corpse, and unravels the map against a wall. After locating the large hole they fell through, which was near the center of the nest judging by the map, they then notice a handful of smaller holes marked close by - two to the north and two to the south. She takes out a pen and finds the room they’re currently in, writing a small note near it. She then stows her pen back inside her coat pocket, taking out a small flashlight in its place and turning it on. “Well, we know where to go to find the others. Let’s get moving. There looks to be a hole close by, down the opposite hallway of what we just went through. I think Petra and Zenton will take care of the other three holes.” The Meltan nods, and they go back through that hallway to the intersection.. . .Meanwhile, Petra is walking through a different hallway, with a flashlight attached to her armor. She doesn’t find any intersections, only a singular straight hallway that eventually leads into a room in the distance. She hears a fight going on in that room, between a handful of bugs and what sounds like a male. “! Carson,” she exclaims, rushing toward the room.In that room, Carson is fending off one Harylect and three Sponarees at the same time, only managing to get a hit in every so often while just barely dodging the flurry of attacks they’re firing. Petra then runs into the room, slamming herself into one of the Sponarees with Double Edge, the bug splattering when it collides with the wall. Then she quickly slams her Iron Tail down onto the Sponaree to her right, killing that one as well. Then, as the final Sponaree tries to fire a Bubble Beam at Petra, she disappears, reappearing right after seemingly nothing hits the Sponaree. Carson then follows up with a Quick Attack to finish that bug, then lights himself ablaze with Flare Blitz and rams into the Harylect, all of that fire burning the yellow bug to a crisp. Carson then breathes a sigh of relief.“Thanks Petra. You came at just the right time,” he tells her.Petra nods in reply, then asks “Know there the others fell?”“Nope. This room was all that was here,” Carson replies. “Thing is, the moment I fell down, those bugs came in. Must’ve been waiting for me.” Carson then notices a frame hanging on the wall, containing a map. “A map? Why would these bugs need a map?”“Maybe for the newborns?” Petra replies They look at the map and see that only the center path, which Simon took, leads to the rest of the place, and the paths above and below it are ultimately dead ends, with the top path containing two separate rooms.“Come on. Let’s regroup with the others. Simon and the prince came down with me,” Petra tells Carson. He nods as he follows Petra into the hallway.. . .Outside the nest, at the surface level, Kiwi and the others are still walking south through the Humming Jungle, the leaves on the ground no longer being as numerous as they were a few minutes ago.“We have to be getting close to an exit, right?” Kiwi tells himself, before seeing a bright light at the end of the dirt path. “Aha! There’s the exit.” As they all leave the Humming Jungle proper over the next few seconds, they find themselves at a grassy plain. “Ahhhhh, sunlight at last. Man, we were in there for a full day. Guess the lack of sunlight really did make a difference.” Eris, however, looks a bit worried. “What’s wrong?” he asks her.“...They’re in that nest,” Eris replies, sounding a bit down. “Th-They could get hurt o-or even--”“They’ll be fine. Trust me,” Kiwi tells her. “They’re not elite warriors for noth--”“No!” Eris interrupts him. “We have to do something! Aren’t we supposed to help others?”Kiwi is a bit taken aback. “But...who will watch over the o--”“Go.” Then one of the guards, a Vaporeon, chimes in, Kiwi and Eris turning to him in surprise. “We’ll watch over them while you’re away.” He pauses for a second or two. “If these underground dwellers are as invasive as the wasp queen says they are, then they are a danger to the entire region. And they may ultimately threaten our kingdom. As such, we should help exterminate them while we’re still here.”Then, at that instant, several bugs emerge from the jungle, all of them being the underground species, and surround the group. Two of the guards, however, knock away the bugs standing between them and the jungle, thus creating an opening. “Go! We’ll fend them off!” the guard exclaims.Kiwi stares at him in shock for two seconds before nodding and saying “Alright.” he then looks toward Eris and tells her “Come on Eris. Let’s hurry.” And the two run back into the Humming Jungle.“Hey wait! What are you two doing?” Coronet exclaims through telepathy.Kiwi replies [We’re getting the hives together. If we know where the nest is, then we can put an end to it while we still can. That’s their goal, to exterminate these nests. And this may be our only shot at doing such.]Coronet is silent for two seconds before telling him “...You’re right. This may very well be our only chance to sabotage this nest before their numbers grow. I’ll let Simon know what you’re doing. Good luck, you two.” He then cuts the link as the two run through the jungle as fast as they can.. . .Zenton, meanwhile, is walking through his designated hallway, squinting his eyes to better make out what’s in front of him. He’s able to see somewhat well enough to not need a flashlight. He comes to a fork in the hallway, looking down the right path first.“Your Highness!” He then hears a voice from the other hallways, and looks to see a Leafeon guard running towards him. “You came, sir.”“I did,” the prince replies. “Where’s the other guard?”“I believe he fell into the hole leading to the other room,” the guard replies. “I’m going to go assist him.”“I will join you,” Zenton says.“Your Highness, are you sure?” the guard asks.“Well, that’s why I’m down here,” he explains. “Simon and Petra are here as well, searching for the others.”The guard is still for a second, before replying “Yes sir!” and running down the right path with Zenton following close behind.They quickly enter the room and see that the other guard, an Umbreon, has just finished killing the last remaining bug. He looks up and sees Zenton and the first guard running in.“Ah. Your Highness, sir!” he exclaims, bowing to him.The first guard says “Well, I suppose you didn’t need help after all.”“Excellent work, you two,” Zenton says, then turning back towards the hallway they just went through. “Now then, follow me. We need to regroup with the others.”Zenton then runs forward, the other two guards shouting “YES SIR!” and running behind him.After a few seconds, they make it back to where they dropped down into, as do Petra and Carson.“Prince. You found the guards,” Petra says in a polite tone. Zenton nods, before PEtra continues in her usual tone. “We found a map where Carson was. I guess Simon’s path is the only one that’ll lead us to the exit.”“Then let’s head down the middle path and regroup with Simon and Kanani,” Zenton replies. He then commands “Let’s go” while running down that hallway.“Ah. Yes,” Petra replies in a polite tone again, she and Carson following. The two guards look at each other for a second and a half, before running into the hallway themselves.. . .In another room somewhere in the nest, Kanani slowly wakes up after having fallen unconscious from the fall. She looks around, muttering “Where am I...?” She sees no one around, and then slowly gets up and shakes her head to fully wake up. “Wait, I remember looking behind me to find Carson, and then...falling down here.” She looks around again. “Is this...that nest we were warned about?”Then she hears an insect chirp above her, and looks up at the ceiling to see a Harylect just sitting there staring at her, electricity crackling around it on occasion. Kanani stares back with an uneasy smile and a sweatdrop.“Umm...hi there,” she says nervously. “You’re uhh, friendly, right?” The Harylect, in response, jumps off the ceiling towards Kanani, causing her to squeal “EEK!” and jump out of the way. “I-I guess not,” she says, raising her right paw and creating a ball of Ghost energy. The yellow bug then lunges toward Kanani a second time, causing her to squeal again. “Stay away from meeeeee!” She exclaims, starting to throw her Shadow Ball towards it.But then the Harylect is stabbed with a sword by Simon, who is standing behind it. She then quickly lifts her sword upward, leaving a massive gash, then swings diagonally from her lower-right through the bug’s body, cutting it into three pieces. As the Harylect’s corpse parts fall to the ground, Kanani breathes rather heavily with a horrified look on her face.Simon sees this as she dismisses her sword, and asks “You ok over there?”“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kanani replies, in a high-pitched voice. “Ju-Just recovering f-from a very near-incident.” She whimpers. “I hate voltage...”Simon sweatdrops, replying “Oh. Good to know.” before hearing footsteps in the distance. She looks down the hallway and sees a light at the intersection. She pulls out her own flashlight and shines it down the hallway, exclaiming “Heeeey! We’re in heeere!” to the others. Zenton and the others quickly run down that hallway into the room where Simon and Kanani are. “Oh good. You’ve rescued the others. Faster than I anticipated,” Simon says.Petra tells Simon “The other two paths were dead ends. Most of the holes led to them. We saw it on the map hung up where Carson fell.”“Why would they hang up a map?” Simon asks.“We think it’s for newborns, since they likely don’t know the layout and all,” Petra replies.Simon thinks on this for two seconds, before continuing. “Either way, it doesn’t matter to us. I also found a map. This one, however, wasn’t hung up or anything.” She gets down on one knee, placing said map on the ground in the center of everyone.“How’d you get this one?” Petra asksSimon replies “Turns out, someone else was down here long before we were. A lone Scyther, from what I saw. Likely a scouting mission for one of the hives. Got killed off by the swarm of bugs, is my guess.” She pauses for a second or two. “Regardless, we are currently right here in this room.” She points to the room they are in right now, then slides her finger upward to the room where she labelled the Scyther’s corpse. “This is the room where I found this map.” Then she places her finger on the last remaining path, and across it to a part that fades out. “Which leaves the last remaining hallway we’ve yet to go through. The end of it must be the exit.” She raises her hand from the map, and brings it to her chin. “That said, this nest seems rather small from the looks of it. It must’ve been carved out somewhat recently, otherwise I’d expect it to be much bigger than this.”Then she hears Coronet’s voice telepathically. “Simon. Eris and Kiwi have gotten the group out of the jungle. They’re now going through the jungle rounding up several hives, and then coming down to your location. The guards are looking after the group until you all return.”Simon replies with [Understood. Since we’re in a nest and all, we may need all the help we can get with escaping.] Then she addresses Petra and the others. “Well then, let’s get going. It’s time we rendezvous with the others.” The other nod and then they all walk back towards the intersection.. . .“Are you certainnnn it’s therrrre?” Kiwi and Eris are currently inside the Beedrill hive again, speaking to their queen.Kiwi and Eris nod in unison to the queen, Eris saying “We saw some of their guards fall into the holes on the dirt path.”“Hmmmm, so it iiiis that nesssst. They made so much progreeeess since the last tiiiime,” The Mega Beedrill muses, which causes the two to bat an eye. “We had discovered that nest some tiiiime ago, but wanted to confirrrrm that a nest was indeeeed in that areaaaa. So we hirrrred an outside scout to exploooore that nest. But unforrrrtunately, he never returrrrned. We believe himmmm to be deeeead, but unless weeee can enter their nest and find his coooorpse, then there is no way for us to know for suuuure. If it is the same nesssst, then now might be the only tiiiime to purge its existennnnce.” She then shrieks loudly in her own tongue.“What’s she saying?” Kiwi whispers to Eris.“She’s calling for the entire hive to gather here,” Eris replies.The queen tells them “Yeeees. For it is tiiiime for us to stoooorm the nesssst, and purrrrge those specieeees. Noooow is the time, at long laaaast, for ourrrr revennnnge.” She then advises Kiwi and Eris. “Inform the others hiiiives of the nest’s locationnnn, so that they may assist in the eeeeffort to exterminate iiiit.” The two nod and quickly depart from the hive as numerous Beedrills take their place.. . .After Simon and the others walk through the last remaining pathway, which only consists of hallways and the occasional small room, they approach a massive open area with a side hallway on the left side, and a bright light on the opposite side of where they enter.“That must be the exit over there,” Petra says.Then, however, they notice its light being blacked out from bottom to top. On top of this, all of the crystals in the room begin glowing green, illuminating the room and revealing a crowd of Firokes, Sponarees, and Harylects near those crystals. Then, at the center of the area, they notice a much larger Pokemon. A massive insectoid chimera with features resembling those of moths, dragonflies, ants, and bees. A dark brown body with a massive abdomen, with hair colored either red, yellow, or blue on each section of her body, accompanied by six legs - two of each primary color. She extends her six wings outward in six different directions, the tips also being two of each of the three primary colors. Then all six of her eyes - two large and four small - flash bright green for a second before dimming to only a faint glow.“Is that...its queen?” Carson asks, fear in his voice.“That. Thing. Is. HUGE!” Kanani exclaims.“Well you wanted a fight, here it is,” Simon says to Zenton, who is already primed for battle. “Not like we’re given a choice anyway. That creature’s blocking our exit.”The queen then raises its head upward and lets out a bloodcurdling insectoid screech, electricity crackling from its yellow hairs. Kanani puts a rather horrified expression onto her face, as the queen fires off a monstrous Thunder from her mouth towards her. Simon manages to grab Kanani and toss her towards the left side while also dodging the attack, before the queen fires several Thunders, counting about 30 or so, back-to-back towards her. She dodges every time, getting in a swing towards the bugs here and there to thin the herd. Then the queen fires one last Thunder, this one bouncing off a crystal, catching Simon off guard and zapping her right shoulder and staggering her as she collapses on the ground, her sword disappearing.After Kanani regains herself, she notices several Tricwes and Harylects charging up Electric attacks, which causes her to panic and attempt to run away from them. They all fire their Thunderbolts, some of them missing but one of them hitting Kanani followed by the rest of them, leaving her heavily fried.Zenton attempts to dash toward the queen, but notices several fires emerging between him and the queen. He looks to the right and sees several Firokes channelling Fire Spins, with Zenton dodging all of them in quick succession and letting out a Hyper Voice to disorient them long enough to ram into all of them at once with a Double Edge. After that, however, he looks around and finds himself completely surrounded by the fires. The queen then charges up water in its mouth, Zenton leaping to dodge the Hydro Pump. But then the queen quickly bends its neck backward, Zenton noticing this before the Hydro Pump grabs and submerges him entirely in pounding water before tossing him against the wall close to the exit, beaten and battered and coughing up blood.Petra, while taking down the smaller bugs with the guards, notices Zenton and exclaims “Prince!” before noticing the queen staring at her and the guards. The queen builds fire up in her mouth, while the bugs surround the three. The queen then launches her Fire Blast a couple seconds later. Petra and the Umbreon guard, in response, disappear while the other guard Quick Attacks out of the circle. Petra reappears in midair by the queen, and then smacks the queen in the neck with an Iron Tail. “That’s for hurting the prince.”Simon and Zenton then both manage to pick themselves up, despite their injuries. Simon summons her sword again in her right hand, and dashes towards a group of bugs, swinging at all of them.“Petra!” she yells out. “Keep the queen busy. The rest of us will take care of the offspring. The sooner we thin these numbers, the better off we are.”Everyone acknowledges and begins focusing on the horde of insects surrounding the queen, while Petra disappears again, throwing the queen off. Simon keeps swinging repeatedly at the bugs in front of them, each swing killing at least one or two bugs, while Zenton rams into every single small in his path with a continuous Double Edge, ramming into a Sponaree and eviscerating it instantly. Carson does the same with his Flare Blitz, while Kanani blasts her own Hydro Pump toward a group of Firokes. The queen then looks toward Petra and fires three separate swirling triangles towards her, who disappears again before it would’ve hit. She reappears right above the queen and nosedives against the queen’s head with a Double Edge, before zipping to the ground with a Quick Attack and sprinting around the gargantuan insect. Then she notices the queen charging up a giant laser towards both her and Simon. Initially shocked, Petra then rushes forward with a Double Edge, quickly strafing with Quick Attack to dodge any lines of larger bugs trying to intercept her. She rams right into the queen’s torso, staggering her and stopping her Hyper Beam.As Petra lands on the ground, she comments “Sheesh, you’re pretty tough. I feel like I haven’t even put that big a dent in you.” Around them, most of the bugs have either been wounded or killed by Simon and the others.The queen, seeing this, continues charging her Hyper Beam as if nothing ever happened, which shocks everyone. Then, right before she is going to fire the Hyper Beam, several wind blades come flying out of the side hallway towards the queen, stopping the attack as its energy disappears entirely this time. Then several Beedrills and Combees swarm the area and completely surround the queen.“We’re here!” Simon and the others hear Kiwi’s voice, and look into the side hallway and see him and Eris running into the area with the Mega Beedrill and Vespiquen flying in behind them. The two hive queens, in their own language, order their children to attack the queen, which they all do so with numerous swirling wind gusts, wind blades, and thrusting poison attacks, all of them hitting the queen and keeping her staggered. The Vespiquen creates and fires several stones, and the Mega Beedrill afterward flies in and repeatedly thrusts her four stingers one after the others at the queen. Kiwi runs to Simon and the others.“What timing,” Simon tells him.“Sorry we’re late,” he replies. “Took a bit of time getting back to the beehive. Anyway.” He then pops his Z-Crystal necklace and raises it above him. “Z-Synthesis!” The Grassium-Z glows a bright green, spreading its energy to Simon and the others and fully healing their injuries.“Thank you,” Simon tells him. “Now then, let’s finish this.”Everyone nods as the two guards zig-zag with Quick Attack, running into and smacking the queen several times between the plethora of other attacks she’s taking. Then Kanani charges up a ball of frozen water in front of her, and fires her Ice Beam at the queen’s head, freezing its mouth. Then Petra, Zenton, and Carson run forward at progressively faster speeds, then ramming into the queen’s torso with Double Edge and Flare Blitz. Simon, at the same time, backflips very high in the air and reaches the wall, before the ice covering the queen’s mouth shatters. “Too late,” she mutters as she zips off the wall and performs a downward slice before landing on one knee behind the queen, blood spewing out of the gash left behind. As the blood spewing ceases, the gargantuan bug collapses to her left, lifeless. Simon dismisses her sword as she gets up and faces the others.The Vespiquen orders her own hive to storm the remainder of this nest for any stragglers. The Beedrills, however, stay behind. The Mega Beedrill, namely, approaches Simon and the others.“At long laaaast, the Seikamaterrrr is deeeead,” she tells them.“Seikamater?” Petra wonders. “Is that what we just killed?”The wasp queen nods, continuing. “We were unsurrrre if this nest was under the leaderrrrship of a queeeen. That is whyyyy we hired a scout to investigaaaate.”“You mean the one Scyther?” Simon asks.“Yeeees,” the Mega Beedrill replies curiously. “How did you knoooow?”“We found him near the center of the nest. I labeled it on this map.” Simon unrolls her map and hands it to the wasp queen.“I seeee...” she says solemnly. “We shall see that he is givennnn a proper buriallll. Assss for the queeeen.” They all look toward the deceased Seikamater. “We shall procure the Royal Jelly for oursellllves, so as not to let a new queeeen emerrrrge.”Simon hums in acknowledgement. “We’ll leave you to it then,” she then tells the queen. “For us, however, we still have an expedition to resume.” She pauses, bowing to the wasp queen. “Your assistance was appreciated, Your Majesty.”“As was yourssss,” the queen replies courteously. “Besssst of luck on your expeditionnnn.”Simon thanks the wasp queen before she and the others bid the other hives farewell and approach the bright light.When they do and then exit the nest proper, they find themselves at a grassy plain instead of the Humming Jungle they entered from. “Where...are we?” They all wonder, perplexed by their surroundings.<div align=center>FIN</div>
Part 3 - Hum Of A Thousand Bugs [1/2]A few minutes pass. Simon and the rest of the expedition group are still walking southeast down the same path in the Mighty Steppe as when they departed from the Medi-tribe’s encampment, most of them feeling exhausted from the lack of progress they’ve made and new faces they’ve seen.Eris lets out an exhausted sigh. “We’ve been walking for so long...”“Feels like we’ve made no progress whatsoever,” Kiwi says, also looking exhausted.“These mountains did look quite large from the outside,” Simon replies, looking to her left. “Doesn’t look like we can set up our own camp anywhere nearby either. We’ll just have to keep on going until we find something.” She then thinks to herself. [This does feel much longer than it is. We’ve only been walking for a few minutes, and yet some of us are already more exhausted than usual. The scenery being the same certainly doesn’t help that.]Only a handful of seconds later, they come to a fork in the road. One path leads to the east and northeast, while the other continues southward through the mountainous hills.“Lo and behold,” Simon comments. “We must be at the outer portions of the Mighty Steppe. Let’s head eastward and see what we find there.”The others nod in agreement and follow Simon down the left path.. . .Only after a minute or so do they find a new environment before them. A field of nothing but sand, with cold winds blowing above them.“Are we in a desert?” Simon asks, some of the others agreeing with her.One of the guards sighs heavily. “This sand’s gonna make it difficult to pull this wagon,” he says.“He’s got a point. The wheels could get stuck on small sand bumps along the way,” Petra says. She turns to Simon. “What should we do about that?”Simon looks at the wagon, then at the sand before everyone, before one of the other guards, a Vaporeon with lightish blue eyes and a spear on her back, calls out to the two. “Why don’t we coat the wheels with water?” she suggests in a more modest voice.“How would that help?” Simon asks her. “Doesn’t sand absorb water?”“Proceed then,” Petra chimes in. She then explains to Simon “Her name’s Kanani. She’s one of the leaders for Chiyeko’s delivery service across the charted areas of Orlan. It is true that sand does absorb water. However, all Vaporeons working for the delivery service have been trained in a special form of Water Gun that can’t be absorbed in any way by the sand. They always have at least three Vaporeons working on the clock at any given time for this reason.”As she explains, Kanani, as she is called, squirts each of the 4 wheels with her Water Gun, each of them now looking polished and shiny. “All done. Now, here are some things you need to know when carrying this across sand. You’ll want to keep your momentum steady. That means no sudden movements, for any reason. And if you’re going to stop moving, then do it slowly. Lastly, if for any reason you get stuck in the sand, don’t move the wagon forward. Instead, either push it back or wait for us to sweep the sand away.” The two wagon carriers nod. Kanani turns to most of the others. “You guys go on ahead. We’ll watch over the wagon on our way.”They nod, and Petra says “Come on” to some of the others, one of them being Eris, as they follow.. . .As they walk rather slowly through the sands, they note how warm but grainy it feels on their paws.“Guess not everyone has the paw support that I do,” Kiwi tells himself, sweatdropping. “Least this place won’t muddy my lab coat.”Meanwhile, Simon looks at Petra and asks her “Do you have the name list for the expedition? I think I should start memorizing names and faces now.”Petra nods, saying “Yeah I still have it”, and pulls out of her armor a folded packet of pages, and hands it to Simon. “We got a new copy of it before we left.”Simon looks at the packet, and sees that each name is accompanied by a portrait, with the first page listing Simon, Petra, Kiwi, and a name without a portrait - “Coronet”. Instead it is accompanied by a box of text that reads “Will be communicating through telepathy”, which she says out loud to herself.Then she hears a mildly condescending disembodied voice from somewhere, saying “Hello”.Simon looks a bit surprised, before replying back telepathically [Coronet, correct?]“Yes,” Coronet replies. “I joined to serve as a middleman between the kingdom and the expedition group. You also have a handful of Jolteons on the list for the same reason; their speed will allow word to spread fast should you all leave my telepathic range.”Simon sighs, and says [Well, I suppose that makes sense. Just, don’t be too intrusive, alright?]“Very well,” Coronet responds before cutting the link.Then, she hears Eris gasp in awe towards her left. She looks in that direction, and sees...water. Not an oasis, but an entire sea.“We’re not in a desert. This is a beach!” Eris exclaims, her eyes twinkling.Then a cold breeze blows by them, leaving a lot of them to shiver. “A cold one at that,” Kiwi replies.After a few more minutes of walking through the sandy beach, they reach the waters, and have a look into the somewhat deep parts. Unfortunately they all see no signs of Pokemon anywhere in the water.“This might be an okay spot for a short rest,” Petra says. The others agree, despite the place on the whole being somewhat frigid. One of the Flareons starts a small fire on the sands to warm everyone up, while Simon continues looking at the packet Petra handed her. After Coronet, she sees Eris’ name and portrait, and then Carson’s. Then Kanani’s. And after that, an assortment of names and portraits she doesn’t quite latch onto just yet.. . .Back at the Mighty Steppe: the royal-looking Eevee reaches the sandy area that the others took, noting the footsteps and wheel trails left behind by Simon and the others. “So they went this way then,” he says with a moderately eager voice.. . .A moment later, Kanani and the others arrive at the beach with the wagon. “Oh, welcome,” Simon tells them. Then she addresses Kanani only. “Could you go dive into the water for a bit to see if any Pokemon are in it?”Kanani nods, and walks over to and dives into the sea. Simon then folds the packet twice, and puts it in her right coat pocket. Meanwhile, the Meltan is looking around inside her other coat pocket, out of sight.“Don’t make any noise,” Simon whispers to it.Kiwi, to her left, asides to Simon “When do you think we should introduce it to the others?”“Not anytime soon,” Simon responds.“Would allow it to sightsee more freely,” Kiwi says. “I mean, it looks like it wants to.”“Kiwi I’m trying to be cautious here. If the royal family finds out about King Metallic and his children, there may be serious consequences,” Simon tells him. “We were able to get away with explaining the armor replacements only to Petra, but that’s about as far as I wanna take it for the time being.” She pauses. “Speaking of,” she says, swapping to telepathically speaking to Coronet. [You were listening in on all of that, weren’t you?]“I was,” he replies. “Though I was told ahead of time by Asher, so I already knew about it. We’ve all agreed to keep it a secret until you feel comfortable spilling the beans to everyone else.”[Just keep in mind, the only other person who knows about King Metallic is Petra,] she tells him. [No one else knows. Please keep it that way.]“Understood,” Coronet acknowledges before cutting the link.Then, suddenly, Simon hears soft footsteps on the sand behind her, and quickly turns around. “Who’s there?” she exclaims while the Meltan ducks back into her coat pocket completely.She sees a royal-looking Eevee approach the expedition group, wearing a royal blue cape and a headband made of gold and silver. “Wow, nothing gets by you, does it?” the Eevee responds.“And who are you?” she asks the Eevee.Then Kiwi locks his eyes on him and gasps in shock. Petra turns and also begins to ask who they’re talking about, before seeing the Eevee and gasping in utter surprise.“It can’t be--” Kiwi reacts.Petra, on the other hand, runs toward the Eevee, exclaiming “Prince!”“That’s the prince?” Simon asks, batting an eye.Kiwi nods, explaining “His name’s Zenton. He’s the son of King Cerulean, which thereby makes him the Prince of Chiyeko. Though his usual demeanor doesn’t really please many of the staff, aside from Asher whom he commissions for all sorts of stuff. Our chef, Fleur, especially doesn’t like him.”“Oh. Joy.” Simon replies, sweatdropping with an annoyed expression.Then the two hear Petra ask Prince Zenton “What’re you doing here?”, speaking in a higher, more polite tone than she usually would with anyone else.[Who is she? It’s like she’s a completely different person when speaking to him,] she says to herself.“Well, my father wanted me to join this expedition to sort of keep watch over everything and help out wherever needed,” Zenton explained.“Well more backup for what’s ahead is always a good thing,” Simon replies.Zenton then looks toward Simon, and asks “So then who are you?”“Call me Simon. That’s what everyone else calls me,” she replies. “As for what I’m doing here, your father hired me to help out with this expedition.” She pauses. “Petra and I agreed yesterday that we will be acting as co-leaders of the expedition. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll be handling most of the negotiations for our group.” She pauses again for a second or two while Zenton nods in agreement to those terms. “Oh, and, if you could, try not to cause too much trouble for us. We already have enough on our plate for this ordeal.” Zenton reacts in annoyance and exasperation to the last bit.Then, they hear a splash of water as Kanani emerges from the sea. “Oh, you’re back,” Simon says, turning around.“C-C-C-Cold. S-S-So cold,” Kanani whines, shivering quite a bit. The winds make her shiver more.“Well if the cold winds weren’t enough to not consider this place a beach, the water temperature would,” Kiwi comments.Simon then asks “Were you able to find any traces of Pokemon down there?”Kanani shakes her head. “Water’s too c-c-cold for any r-r-regular old Water-type Pokemon,” she says, still shivering.“Not only that, but the surrounding environment would also not make it suitable for Ice-type Pokemon,” Kiwi follows up. “Except maybe Glaceon.”Petra then tells everyone “Well we’ve explored all we could at this beach. Let’s return to the mountains and take the other path. She then looks toward Kanani. “Coat the wheels again. We don’t want you going slower this time.” Kanani nods and squirts the Water Gun on the wheels immediately.Petra then leads the way back to the Mighty Steppe, with Simon, Zenton, and Kiwi following in front of the rest of the expedition group. Then some of them notice to their left a forest-looking area, and comment on such.Simon, looking at the trees in the distance, says “Suppose the other path leads to that forest.” She then pauses, and looks at Kiwi. “That reminds me. Didn’t one of the tribesmen mention a plant genus near the eastern mountains?”“Oh, yes,” Kiwi replies, a bit surprised. “We should look at that next.”Coronet then telepathically contacts him, saying “You’re supposed to be writing an expedition log, remember?”[Didn’t I tell you to not be intrusive?] Simon replies telepathically. [Leave the expedition log to me and Petra. You leave Kiwi to his plant studies.]“As you wish,” Coronet replies, then cuts the link again.. . .Over the next few minutes of walking through the beach, the wagon somehow doesn’t get itself stuck in or against sand thanks to the coating of water on the wheels. They return to the Mighty Steppe and find themselves at the fork again. They take the southern path, which wraps westward around the mountains beside them. Only a few steps down the path do they come across a lone batch of plants. Petals blood red and somewhat wrinkled, three sets high and all attached to a faintly glowing lime green stem.“Wow. This is strange,” Kiwi comments. “Blood red and lime green are not a color combination I expected to see up here in the mountains.” He takes out a pair of clippers from one coat pocket and a plastic bag from another, and approaches the plant. He clips two or three of the plants in the batch, putting his clippers away and pulling out a small cloth, then grabbing the plants and putting them in the bag. “Can’t be too careful with foreign plants. I’ll study them when I get the chance.”He puts the bag away and the group continues down the path west. To their left is a plethora of trees that look very similar to the ones they saw at the beach, signifying a forest of some kind that seems foreign to everyone. They see the trees’ branches and leaves form a dense canopy, with only a hole here and there to let in sunlight.“Quite the forest we’ll be walking into,” Zenton says.A few seconds later, they make it to the end of the wrapping path and enter the forest proper. It’s dimly lit with humid air thanks to the canopy overhead. Each tree looks to fall into one of five different genera, and has at least one set of vines that look sturdy enough to climb up its several layers of branches. There are also several batches of plants surrounding some of these trees, each one of at least a dozen unique genera, which makes Kiwi’s eyes twinkle in excitement as he runs over to each different species and clips a handful of samples of each plant and pulls off chunks of wood from each tree for studying.“Oooooh this is great!” Kiwi exclaims in excitement.“Don’t get too carried away over there,” Simon tells him, sweatdropping.As they walk through, they also notice different species of Bug-type Pokemon either creeping across the ground, hanging onto trees to rest or drink sap from them, or since a lot of them have wings, flying overhead. As well, every so often they see a collapsed tree among the rest, which lets in more sunlight than the patches they’ve seen here and there. And wherever the sunlight hits the ground, the vegetation grows explosively, sometimes covering entire chunks of the collapsed trees. Kiwi takes a small portion of said vegetation as well, his pockets looking rather stuffed.“Jeez, how much stuff can you fit in there?” Simon asks.“Well, if you arrange your stuff in your pockets in a certain way, you can fit more in them than intended,” Kiwi tells her. “It comes in handy when you’re an herbalist.”Then, once everyone quiets down in unison, they all begin to hear...a hum. A constant hum, from several insects’ wings at once. They look around and notice several flying insects, all of them yellow hexagonal bees with three faces. One one of the trees near the canopy is a massive oval-shaped structure which they appear to be guarding.“A beehive. We must’ve stumbled into a colony,” Kiwi says. They notice that the bees aren’t actually showing hostility, and a lot of them are simply minding their own business.“They don’t seem to think we’re intruders,” Petra says.Then a small group of them flies to the expedition group, circling them slowly and appraising each of them carefully. The group all stand still during this, until the Combees bounce happily in the air, some of them flying back to their hive afterward.“Maybe we should take this opportunity to move along now,” Petra suggests.The Combees shake themselves, which they suppose is their way of saying no, and then look towards the hive. Out comes an initially small, almost beehive-esque Pokemon, that grows almost as big as the hive itself, which shocks most of the group. She approaches the expedition group, speaking in a very insectoid tongue.Eris begins translating. “‘Good morrow, travelers. Welcome to our humble abode in this forest.’”The Combees stare at her curiously. “Ahhh, myyyy apologieeees. I seeee that you do not sssspeak our languaaaage. Except for your frrrriennnnd there.” Zenton comments on them speaking Poke. “I am what you call a Vesssspiquennnn. I am the queeeen of this hiiiive. Pleeeeased to make your acquaintannnnce.” Most of the expedition group members bat an eye, or look at each other with confused expressions. “Ahhhh yeeeessss. You are bewilderrrred by our speakinnnngs. Our kind speak a linnnngering tonnnngue. As you can tellll.”“It’s a bit hard to translate because of it,” Eris comments. “Do other insects speak Poke as well?”“Onlyyyy the queens doooo,” the Vespiquen replies. Eris sweatdrops with a slightly uneasy expression.“Moving on,” Simon begins to explain. “We are an expedition group hired by Cerulean, King of Chiyeko, tasked with exploring the uncharted regions of Orlan. My name is Simon. I serve as one of the expedition leaders, alongside Petra. And just recently, our dear Prince has decided to join us.” She says this in an almost patronizing tone. “Eris here is our group’s translator, in the event that whoever we come across can’t speak Poke. Which this will be the second time of such.”“I seeee,” the Vespiquen acknowledges. “Well, the denizennnns of the forest welcommmme you to our humble aboooode. Rest assurrrred, we mean you no harrrrm.” She pauses. “Althouuuugh, we doooo enjoy a good sparrrring match with otherrrrs. We also challenge visitorrrrs if they are ablllle. However, since most of you wield weaponnnns, we will refrain from doinnnng so with youuuu.” Another pause. “I shall warrrrn you, howeverrrr. We all may not be hostilllle, but many of ussss are quite territorrrrial, and will block otherssss from entering their hiiiives.”“Is there a way to get around that?” Simon asks.“Only thoooose who are given approvallll by the colony’s queeeen are permitted to enterrrr. However, gaining this approoooval is often difficullllt. Most foreigners, and even other colonieeees, have failed in these taskssss.” She pauses again. “Howeverrrr...If someone of outstanding importannnnce is among a grooooup, they are willinnnng to make an exceptionnnn.”Simon looks over at Zenton, and asks “Well?”“Why’re you looking at me?” Zenton questions.“You’re the prince,” Simon replies with an annoyed look and tone.The Vespiquen then explains that “Despite thiiiis, I cannot cannot allow access to our hiiiive. It’s an important timmmme of the year for efficiencyyyy.”“Speaking of the hive. How are you almost as big as your hive, yet when you initially came out, you were much smaller?” Kiwi asks.“Ahhhh yeeeessss,” the Vespiquen initially replies. “Most hives, during the buillllding processss, are infused with a special maaaagiiiic conjured by the queeeen. It allows for a reasonable siiiize on the outsiiiide, but a spacious area on the innnnside.”“Wow, they use magic here,” Kanani comments.“Where can we find other hives to visit?” Simon asks.“There are hiiiive all over this foresssst,” the Vespiquen replies. “Howeverrrr, the closest onnnnes are south of heeeere” She points in that direction.“Thank you,” Simon tells the queen. “Now, we’d best be on our way.”The Vespiquen bids them “Safe travelllls” as they depart towards the south.“Well, we learned a lot back there,” Carson says. “But how many species of Bug Pokemon are in this forest?” He pauses for a second. “Actually, what do we call this forest? We’ve named the other forests around Chiyeko, so why not this one?”Then they all stop walking, listening to the humming all around them again.Suddenly, a random voice from the expedition group, an Eevee, chimes in. “I know! Since this place looks more like a jungle than a forest, and there’s always a hum here, why don’t we call it the Humming Jungle?”A second of silence passes. “Well this place does look more like a jungle than a forest,” Simon comments.Petra then says “Alright then. Lupen has the honor of naming this forest the Humming Jungle.” Lupen scratches the back of his head with a cheerful grin.Then they look forward, and notice a small group of yellow wasps circling a rather large tree. Along the leaves of this tree is a hive almost the size of the Combees’ hive they saw earlier, this one having a very similar look. Two of the Beedrills notice the expedition group, and stop moving and just float there, staring at them.“Hello there,” Simon says, addressing them. “We don’t mean to bother you, we’re just passing by.” A moment’s silence.“Well if you want a fight, I’m more than willing to oblige,” Zenton remarks.Simon stops him, saying “No. We don’t want to piss off the entire jungle. You can have your fighting another day.” Zenton groans in reply, rolling his eyes.After this, the two Beedrills tense up, now looking ready to strike at any moment. Most of the expedition group reacts in shock and distress.“Why’d they get so defensive? Did Zenton provoke them or something?” Kiwi exclaims.“Placing the blame on me so quickly, are you?” Zenton comments, with an annoyed expression.“You’re the one who said it!” Kiwi exclaims.The Beedrills, meanwhile, look only a slight distance to the right. Simon and Petra notice this, and look to their left. “No, actually,” Simon tells him. “They must’ve heard something from over here.”In that direction, next to a tree, is a small red and black ant with two antennae and four legs, all colored orange. It walks out of the shade, carrying a small batch of the dark green leaves scattered on the ground near the trees. Some of the others, notably Kiwi and Eris, look over to it as well.“Awwww it’s so cute!” Eris exclaims, her eyes twinkling.“Doesn’t appear to be hostile. In fact, it’s just minding its own business,” Kiwi says, slowly walking towards it. “Maybe we can try talking to i--”Then, one of the Beedrills swiftly flies toward the ant, its tail stinger at the ready, which cuts off Kiwi. Simon stops Kiwi from walking, telling him “Stay back!”The Beedrill extends its tail stinger and slams it into the small ant, tearing into the creature as a dark green liquid bursts out of it. Some of the expedition group are horrified at this. Then the Beedrill slides its arm stingers under the ant’s corpse and carries it toward the hive.“Now what was that for? I thought you weren’t supposed to kill others!” Kiwi exclaims.Simon looks toward Eris. “Might wanna focus for this,” she tells her, who nods in reply. The other Beedrill replies in the insectoid language the Vespiquen initially spoke in.Eris translates it. “‘It’s true that in most cases, we do not kill our opponents. However, there are a few species who live underground that we do kill, as they are the forest’s mortal enemies. That red ant is one such species. A “Smore”, it’s called.’”“Man, now I want roasted marshmallows,” Kiwi comments.Then, the first Beedrill comes back out from the hive and addresses the second in their language. Eris, out of respect, doesn’t translate their conversation. After a bit, the second Beedrill speaks to the expedition group again, Eris translating this part. “‘I have received word from our queen. She wishes to invite you into our hive.’”“Very well,” Simon responds, “Lead the way.” The two Beedrills nod and fly to their right, the others following.When they approach the wasp hive within the leaves, they see a flight of transparent green stairs materializing from its hexagonal entrance, each step larger than the last. As they walk up them, they feel themselves be physically affected by some sort of magic. They look to the left and right, and notice that they are actually shrinking the closer they get to the hive, the Beedrills buzzing around now gargantuan to them compared to before. They then enter the hive, its interior architecture being almost entirely made up of hexagonal shapes colored both a solid gray and a liquid dark brown. There are also several Beedrills buzzing around the roof of the hive, and several yellow cocoons and multi-spherical caterpillars loitering on the ground level.“Wow,” Kiwi says in awe. “Are most hives designed like this?” One of the Beedrills nods in response, before pointing to the twin doors at the back and speaking.“‘Beyond those doors is where our queen will be waiting,’” eris translates. “‘She has much to tell you.’” The two wasps then fly back out of the hive.Kiwi then looks toward Zenton with a nervous expression, telling him “Please don’t get us into trouble. You almost did back there.”Zenton, annoyed, sighs. “Fiiiine...”They all go through the double doors into what looks to be a throne room, with a larger wasp with five stingers of varying sizes resting on the large honey-like chair.“Good morrow, travelerrrrs. Welcommmme to our home,” the larger Beedrill, presumably their queen, greets them all.Simon and the others give their greetings, and introduce themselves and what they are doing. She then asks the queen “So, why did you invite us here?”“Yeeees, of coooourse,” the wasp queen replies. “We brought you herrrre because you witnessed onnnne of the forest’s mortal enemieeees. A Smorrrre. An underground specieeees that surrrrfaces to scavenge fooood and supplies for its nesssst. As wellll, they can light our foresssst on fire if they wiiiish, should they linger for too lonnnng.”Kiwi ponders this; “Why would these ants wanna burn down their own food and resource hub?”“Maybe they do it after all possible goods have been scavenged,” Petra replies.“They wouldn’t be that reckless, right?” Kiwi exclaims.“It wouldn’t beeee for lack of resourcessss,” the Mega Beedrill tells them. “It would beeee to eliminate ussss, and give them free roammmm on the surfaceeee. That, we cannot allowwww. For these unnnnderground species are parasitessss. They destroy the land unnnnderneath us whereverrrr they see fit, to construct their new nestssss.”“Is it just underground nests?” Simon asks. “What about an open cave inside a mountain, let’s say?”The queen shakes her head. “Only the undergrounnnnd will sufficeeee for themmmm.” Then the other Beedrills, serving as guards, bring out six different colored sculptures each of a different bug species. Positioned from left to right, they are the red-and-black ant they saw earlier; a larger fire ant; a small round ocean blue spider; a sizeable sponge-like spider; a striped bee-ant hybrid; and a larger bee-ant hybrid whose abdomen almost looks like a lightbulb. “These species are the onessss who visit the surrrrface for resourcessss.” The nameplates under each of these species read as such, from left to right - Smore, Firoke, Sponee, Sponaree, Tricwe, and Harylect. “The larger bugssss are direct evolutionssss of the smaller bugssss. The smaller species are birrrrthed by a large queeeen, who unfortunatelyyyy we lack suitable observationnnns to create a sculpture offff.” She pauses. “Weeee may act territoriallll to otherrrrs. But all hiiiives in this forest have onnnne shared joooob. Rid the surrrrface of any of these unnnnderground specieeees that come up for fooood as possiblllle, and eliminate anyyyy of their nestssss whenever they emerrrrge.”“Any signs indicating a nest that we should be looking for?” Simon asks.“Manyyyy ennnntrances are often pitfalllls covered by leeeeaves and stickssss,” the queen responds. “If you wish to exit this foresssst from the souuuuth, then be on the lookouuuut for scattered leeeeaves on the dirt paaaath.”“We’ll keep that in mind,” Simon says. “Now then, we must depart.”“Besssst of luck on your journeyyyy, travelerrrrs,” the Mega Beedrill tells them. “If you neeeed a place to resssst, you’ll find an open spot southeasssst of this hiiiive.”“Thank you,” Zenton tells the queen, before he and the others say their farewells and exit the hive.. . .A couple hours pass. The sun slowly starts to set over the canopy, with the light shining through being darker than before. Simon and the others continue down the dirt path now going southeast instead of just due south. Kiwi, of course, is as excited as ever to see all of the new plants they pass by, snipping samples of each new one. All the while, Bug-type Pokemon of many different species are sparring with each other; some matches are just beginning, some are already underway, and some are concluding.“Man, this Humming Jungle sure is big. I don’t even know how far in we are,” Carson says, looking somewhat exhausted. The wagon guards agree, as do a lot of the others.“Hey you’re the ones who volunteered for this, y’know,” Zenton chastises them. Petra sweatdrops while glancing over at him.Simon, on the other hand, sternly tells him “Do not start with that”, to which Zenton replies with an annoyed groan.Then, Kanani exclaims “Look! That must be it!” while pointing towards a wide open field surrounded by hiveless trees.“So it is,” Simon replies. “We should rest here for the evening.” They all nod in agreement, and approach the spot.After a few minutes, their camp is fully constructed, with several tents, boxes of supplies, and a campfire set up. “Well, I’m sure this fire is far enough away from all the foliage and whatnot, so we should be fine,” Simon says. “Now, you guys go ahead and relax for the evening. As for us, we have a meeting we need to hold.” Everyone else nods as Simon, Kiwi, Petra, and Zenton walk towards the trees to their right. [Hey, you there? I want you listening in on this,] Simon says telepathically to Coronet.He replies with “Yes ma’am.”After a couple more seconds, they stop walking, while Simon tells Coronet to [Try to write down a summary of each meeting as best you can. We’ll leave the finer details to our report, which we’ll type out once we return to the kingdom.]“Yes ma’am,” Coronet says again.Simon then rests against a tree, and looks at Zenton. “Y’know, something just dawned on me. How did you get through the Mighty Steppe? I don’t see any green totems on you,” Simon tells him.Zenton replies that “Well, I’m the prince. The mountain’s residents already know who I am, and granted me passage without argument.”“Are you serious?” Simon asks with a somewhat exasperated look.“Are you implying I’m a liar?” Zenton exclaims, annoyed.“Well, it’s just, that place wasn’t marked on any of our maps. How would they know who you are?” Kiwi asks, sweatdropping.Zenton replies that the kingdom got one or two visitors from those mountains. He believes that they told their tribes about the royal family when they returned.Simon then telepathically asks Coronet [Are you able to confirm that?]Coronet replies that [Sorry, I’m unable to at the moment. We’ll just have to take his word for it.][Alright then. I do have questions now, but those can wait,] Simon replies before addressing Zenton again. “Moving on, let me brief you on our expedition so far. Petra, you ready?” Petra nods, an open journal and a pen in her paws.She begins writing as Simon speaks. “The day before it began, Kiwi and I went down into the Shining Mine as a way of passing time. Asher served as our tour guide for most of it. It’s also where most of our new armor and weapons came from. Our miners and smiths managed to finish preparing all of this overnight, using the new ore they found at the bottom of the mine. Then yesterday, we began the expedition and journeyed through the Mighty Steppe. Since we didn’t have any royal privileges, we couldn’t get through scot free. We had to fight a “Ma-tribe” to get us each a totem for passage through the mountains.” She pulls out said totem. “We also learned that a lot of our group can use weapons, which will ease the guards’ jobs.”“And it’ll make my job worse,” Kiwi then comments.“Hey. So long as nobody gets hurt, nothing will change for you. Besides, if things get hairy, you can always use that Z-Crystal of yours,” Zenton tells him.“Only once every six hours!” Kiwi then exclaims to Zenton.“We haven’t even been fighting that much,” Simon replies. “The one time we all fought, there was a safety aura.” She then brings the meeting back on track. “Speaking of the safety aura, we did end up having to fight a “Medi-tribe”, despite having these totems. They said it was a test to see how we all would fare against any adversaries that come our way. They put up a safety aura to keep us from dying of mortal injuries, which go away once the safety aura wears off. They let us stay the night after we beat them. Jump to this morning, and you should already know the rest.” She pauses, then addresses the prince. “So what can you do in a fight?”Zenton responds by saying that “I, Prince Zenton, can slam into my foes and crush their resolve! A booming voice that shall startle my adversaries before they even know what hit ‘em! A powerful jaw that can render my enemies immobile with only a single b--”“Without the theatrics please,” Simon commands, with an annoyed look.Zenton groans with a pouty face, then says “Double Edge. Take Down. Hyper Voice. Bite.”Simon sweatdrops, asking “Why do you know both Double Edge and Take Down?”“Why do you care?” Zenton responds in a very annoyed tone.Simon, exasperated, sighs and facepalms. [This is gonna be a looooong expedition,] she tells Coronet.“Now you know who we have to put up with every day,” Coronet replies.Simon then gets off the tree, saying “Well, I believe we can call this a meeting. Petra, you get all that?” Petra nods, and shows her journal. Simon skims through it for a second or two. “Looks good to me,” she says, beginning to walk back the way they came. “Let’s get back to camp. I think Kiwi has some botany work he wants to do.” Kiwi nods in reply.. . .About half an hour passes. Most of the others are still talking amongst each other while cooking food over the campfire, while Petra and Eris are trying to talk to Prince Zenton, who looks like he doesn’t wanna talk. Kiwi, meanwhile, sits in front of a pair of wooden boxes next to each other, with several of his collected samples laid out in front of him as well as his own journal and a currently unlit lantern on his left, and a set of empty phials on his right. He’s grinding up a couple of leaves colored white with a wooden cylindrical object against a small square of white sandpaper, then putting water into one of the phials as well as the white dust. He mixes the two by spinning the glass around, the water becoming less clear. He brings the phial closer to his eye to look closer at the water, then puts the phial back on the holder and writes its properties in his journal.Simon, sitting there watching him, asks “So how are you able to tell what each plant does?”Kiwi then explains “Well...that’s a difficult question to answer. It’s something you learn when becoming an herbalist. You can’t really go off of color, since not all plants of the same color have the same properties. I guess if I were to best describe it...We’ve been trained to see sparkles in the water.”“How?” Simon asks, batting an eyeKiwi shakes his head. “It’s a secret,” he replies.“Of course,” Simon mutters, looking to her left. She then asks “How long have you been working as an herbalist?”Kiwi, while continuing his work, replies with “Uhhh...I guess unofficially I’ve been working as an herbalist for about two years now. I was only hired as a kingdom staff member a month and a half ago. Miss Lucia usually likes working with me since I know a lot about plants. She’s our lead doctor at the kingdom, though she also doubles as a barber...much to the chagrin of Zenton and Asher. She’s also uhh, quite a chatty one.”“I see,” Simon says with a sweatdrop.. . .The next hour or so passes by, with Simon watching Kiwi work on his botany business. His lantern is on, as it’s gotten rather dark out. He uses about half of the samples he procured, with the other half stowed away in one of the bags the group brought, which rests beside him.“Well, it’s dark out. We should get some sleep,” Kiwi says, turning off his lantern and packing that as well.“Agreed. We still have at least a third of this jungle to walk through,” she replies.They then look around them, and see some bugs on the trees drinking their sap. Simon then picks up one of the wooden boxes, which is surprisingly light, and places it atop the other one. Then she sits down with her back against the two boxes, and looks forward to notice Kiwi with more than one blanket around him.“It’s not that cold out, you know. Especially with the campfire,” she tells him.“Still gonna bundle up,” Kiwi replies. “Don’t want any of these bugs sucking the sap outta me.”“Please never say that again,” Simon tells him, sweatdropping. She then looks up towards the canopy, and slowly drifts off into a peaceful slumber.. . .The next morning, as the expedition group deconstructs the camp, and douses the campfire, Simon and Kiwi are behind one of the trees facing away from the others. The Meltan’s eye is out from under her coat’s collar.“Just wondering, do you know of the closest exit from here?” she asks the Meltan. The Meltan stretches its liquid body in front of it. “That way?” Simon asks, pointing in the same direction. The Meltan nods.Kiwi, holding out a compass, says “Due south again. Just as the wasp queen said. Maybe there’s not much left to go through then.”“Let’s hope,” Simon says, before the Meltan goes back inside her coat. She then addresses Coronet, asking [You awake?]“Yes ma’am,” Coronet replies.[Good. We’ll be departing due south from our campsite,] she tells him. [Hopefully we’ll be out of this Humming Jungle before long.] Coronet acknowledges, then cuts the link.Simon and Kiwi then return to the others, and see that the camp is entirely deconstructed. They approach Zenton and Petra, who look to be having a conversation of their own. “Everything accounted for?” Simon asks.“Yes ma’am. Roll call and item checks have been made,” Petra replies. “Everyone’s ready to go.”“Alright. We head due south,” Simon tells them.“South again? Why that way?” Petra asks.Simon replies “I remember the wasp queen mentioning an exit to the south.“She did?” Coronet asks telepathically.[Weren’t you there?] Simon asks.“No, I wasn’t,” Coronet tells her. “Asher called me over for something.”Zenton then sighs and, in a whiny voice, says “Walking is boring. I wanna spar with something.”Simon ignores this and asks the others “Everyone ready to continue?” They all nod and say yes. “Alright. Let’s get going now,” she tells them, getting back on the dirt path heading southward. Petra and Kiwi stare at her with uneasy smiles.
humans
Pokemon - Half by laAlquimistadePlata
Pokemon - a Medio by laAlquimistadePlata
New Dress by BubbleIce720
Prize: Chibi Misty Goldeen (video in description) by charlot-sweetie
comics
How I think Journeys is going to end 4 by laAlquimistadePlata
crossovers
Pokemon Legends Lumiose (Esp-Eng) by laAlquimistadePlata
group avatar contest
PokePokeFans Group Icon by Shadow-n-Light
Pixel Art
Icon - Harley Pixel ART by Nathy-Marisson
Memes
Anipoke Shipping Chart by OpalSparks
Other
Ash and Misty vs Brock and Nurse Joy by BeeWinter55
Gijinka
Mega Lopunny Maka by Shadow-pikachu7

Favourites

[CM] Katharina van Pumpdjinn by louverusee [CM] Katharina van Pumpdjinn :iconlouverusee:louverusee 177 18 MPP - Pidove Player by birdmir MPP - Pidove Player :iconbirdmir:birdmir 58 10 Pikachu by MangaBlock8 Pikachu :iconmangablock8:MangaBlock8 37 4 Charmander and his evolutions by SoulFullofLove Charmander and his evolutions :iconsoulfulloflove:SoulFullofLove 5 1 001 - Bulbasaur by Devi-Tiger 001 - Bulbasaur :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 521 36 002 - Ivysaur by Devi-Tiger 002 - Ivysaur :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 419 23 133 - Eevee Card by Devi-Tiger 133 - Eevee Card :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 368 43 52 - Meowth Card by Devi-Tiger 52 - Meowth Card :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 419 34 126 - Magmar Card by Devi-Tiger 126 - Magmar Card :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 222 21 51 - Dugtrio Card by Devi-Tiger 51 - Dugtrio Card :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 428 61 25 - Pikachu Card by Devi-Tiger 25 - Pikachu Card :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 407 52 86 - Seel Card by Devi-Tiger 86 - Seel Card :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 237 17 003 - Venasaur by Devi-Tiger 003 - Venasaur :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 403 25 010 - Caterpie by Devi-Tiger 010 - Caterpie :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 321 17 011 - Metapod by Devi-Tiger 011 - Metapod :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 197 11 006 - Charizard by Devi-Tiger 006 - Charizard :icondevi-tiger:Devi-Tiger 528 66
Hello The Group Is Now Back In Action

So I hope you all enjoy the art which is added here to the group and don't forget to add you fabulous art!!!

Anyway a while back I had a group avatar contest 5 people entered but only two actually did it T_T so I'll give the winner :icon1pikapi1: 15 points yay!
More Journal Entries

Weekly Stats

0
0
3
0
0
nothing happening
nothing happening
3 accepted
nothing happening
nothing happening

Group Info

well come to the poke poke fans group home to fans of pokemon
Group
Founded 10 Years ago
Jun 12, 2014

Location
Global

Group Focus
Fan Club

99 Members
87 Watchers
13,864 Pageviews

Admins

Founder


:iconcaird56:

Co-Founders


:iconopalsparks::iconshadow-n-light::iconash-misty-pikachu::iconpokepikapower:

Contributors


:iconashketchumforever::iconganjababy123456789:

Deviants

Visitors

You're not here because you're not logged in
  • :iconsner2000:
    Sner2000
    Visited here 6 days ago
    Isn't a member
  • :iconscovillain:
    scovillain
    Visited here Feb 29, 2024, 5:45:19 PM
    Isn't a member
  • :iconsupercoolgan2:
    SuperCoolgan2
    Visited here Feb 17, 2024, 4:31:16 AM
    Isn't a member
  • :iconheroesarethebomb:
    Heroesarethebomb
    Visited here Nov 28, 2023, 9:31:23 PM
    Isn't a member
  • :iconcosmikadopts:
    CosmikAdopts
    Visited here Aug 18, 2023, 3:39:37 PM
    Isn't a member

Newest Members

Affiliates

:iconanipoke-forevermore::iconpokeani-ocs::iconmarissonshippingfans::iconnegaishipping-people::iconash-ketchum-fangroup::iconashsinfernapefans::iconsupersmashflash2::iconashs-many-ladies::iconpokefans-and-more::iconsonic-pokemon-fc:

Comments


Add a Comment:
 
:iconlaalquimistadeplata:
laAlquimistadePlata Featured By Owner 5 days ago  Professional Digital Artist
What does it mean about the New Design anouncement?
Reply
:iconsupersarcosmic:
SuperSarcosmic Featured By Owner Dec 2, 2016  Student General Artist
Is... is this group still active? ´・ω・`
Reply
:iconshadow-n-light:
Shadow-n-Light Featured By Owner Dec 6, 2016
Not much going on here lately, but I'm still around ^^
Reply
:iconsnowfishjoe:
SnowFishJoe Featured By Owner Aug 14, 2015  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Thx for the invite!Meow :3 
Reply
:iconcaird56:
caird56 Featured By Owner Aug 18, 2015  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
no problemo!
Reply
:iconshadow-n-light:
Shadow-n-Light Featured By Owner Aug 15, 2015
No problem! Thx for joining :D
Reply
:iconkirbynat:
kirbynat Featured By Owner Jul 17, 2015  Hobbyist General Artist
And I can't directly submit to the "crossovers" folder.
Reply
:iconcaird56:
caird56 Featured By Owner Jul 18, 2015  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
i'll do it for now just put it anywhere I'll fix it ASAP
Reply
:iconkirbynat:
kirbynat Featured By Owner Jul 17, 2015  Hobbyist General Artist
OOPS. I did it wrong! I put Ash and Paul in the humans folder; they should be in the 'anime' folder. I just saw 'humans" and didn't read any further. :dummy:
Reply
:iconcaird56:
caird56 Featured By Owner Jul 18, 2015  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
I'll change it xD ^-^
Reply
Add a Comment: