I never actually went back to bed after I got Hana up for her shift. We sat and spent the rest of the night chatting, eventually waking the others when Hana's alarm for dawn went off. We packed up camp and buried our firepit.

The morning travel went without major incident, but both our progress and morale significantly decreased. Though we had chosen not to speak too much in the yellow zone, we couldn't raise our voices in the red zone. Whispers were the most we allowed ourselves, and it was hard to keep up a conversation at a whisper while hiking.

We were moving at a much slower pace than we had the previous day, the battle with Heracross and Pinsir fresh in our minds. It was hard not to be fearful when every tree or shrub could hold the next Scyther or Beedrill.

Throughout the day I would occasionally look back and see Yuji holding Heracross' ball in front of him. He was more than thrilled at his new teammate, but he didn't want to release the Pokemon until we'd left the red zone, mostly because we weren't sure how it would react to being caught.

If it went on a rampage, it could get every single one of us killed, either from itself or any other Pokemon that came wandering through.

Around mid-day, Hana held up a hand and signaled for all of us to stop. Without looking back, she held up a finger to her ear and then pointed ahead of us on the trail.

She'd heard something.

Maybe twenty feet away, a dense series of branches had overgrown the path, obscuring our view. As I listened harder, I could hear the rustling of something moving on the other side.

I clenched Artis' Pokeball, and Yuji moved up to let Pennywise down in front of us. Paige the Bellsprout popped up on Hana's shoulder, pointing its mouth threateningly at the branches.

A person stepped through the overgrowth, annoyingly swatting at the leaves in their way.

We all relaxed immediately.

The person was about our age, on the shorter side with dark hair and thick black glasses. They wore all khaki clothing and carried a massive butterfly net over their shoulder.

As they noticed us, they stopped in surprise. We both looked at each other for a moment before Yuji gave a shy wave.

They gave an unsure wave back, and there was a collective sigh of relief. It had been a fear of ours that if we encountered trainers on the trail they might want to challenge us to a battle. While we could obviously decline, we were trying to move with as little hassle as possible. This person was definitely aware of the Ranger's guidelines for the forest.

As we approached, they sat their butterfly net against a tree and rested against the side of the trail. "Are you headed to Pewter?" They asked in a whisper. Their voice was deceptively deep for their size.

I nodded. "How's it looking up ahead?" I whispered back.

The bug catcher frowned and gestured for the whole group to come closer so we could speak easier. "About a day or two up the way, there's evidence of a Beedrill swarm scouting for more food. I think their Kakuna are probably close to hatching, so be very careful headed through there."

Hana and Yuji gave nods of appreciation, but I could feel Amy's arm grab onto my elbow. I glanced down and could see that they were holding onto me and Hana, and they had the same expression they'd had yesterday after the Heracross battle. It wasn't just the forest, they were so much paler than normal.

The whole endeavor had shaken them deeply, more than any of the rest of us.

The others started to ask for more details from the bug catcher, but I pulled Amy back down the trail a few steps. When I guided them by the hand, they came easily enough.

I turned and leaned down to be eye-height with them, as I stood about a head taller than them. They didn't meet my eyes, instead playing with their hands.

"Hey, Ames," I said gently. "Are you okay?"

"Gee, I wonder what gave that away?" They tried to be sarcastic, but it was really obvious that their heart wasn't in it. "It's okay. I'll be okay."

"Do you have, like, bug trauma or something? It's pretty obvious yesterday really got to you."

They sighed, tugging their cap off their head by the pom-pom. "No, it's nothing like that." Amy tensed up as they fiddled with their hat.

I let the quiet hang in the air for a second. I wasn't going to pressure them to tell me if they didn't want to. Amy was the member of the group I knew the least about, and I realized recently that was on purpose. Whenever I asked the group about their goals for the future, Amy was always the one to give a nonchalant answer or to make a joke. They were an innately secretive person, and that was okay.

Amy finally spoke up, gripping their hat tightly. "So, you know how I want to be a psychic specialist someday?"

I nodded. They hadn't said it outright until just now, but they had mentioned their love of Abra and Exeggcute when teaching me about some of the potential Pokemon in Kanto, both were psychic types.

"Well, Yuji and Amy already know this, but that's because," they paused, debating the best way to say what they were trying to say. "I want to be a psychic specialist because I'm a little psychic, too."

Oh...

I kept my face as measured as possible, but that was big news. Psychics weren't socially ostracized or looked down on, but they were rare. Human people with the ability to speak with others via their minds or to lift small objects without touching them, psychics were just a little different than other people. The only pair of Gym Leaders in Hoenn, Tate and Liza, were a set of twin psychics that ran the Mossdeep City Gym. Because of their proximity to my hometown of Lilycove, I'd seen a few performances from traveling psychics, and I knew that their abilities were very real.

It also explained a lot of why Amy had been so intimidated by the fight yesterday. It was said that psychics could always feel the surface emotions of those around them.

"So when we got spooked by the Pokemon yesterday..." My eyes widened in understanding.

Amy nodded. "I felt all of our fear, not just mine."

They'd experienced everything that had happened at that fight. I thought back to Hana's tears, Yuji's anxiety, and my own fear at the danger. I didn't understand how anyone could make sense of any of that. The rest of us had been exhausted dealing with our own feelings, let alone everyone else's.

I scooped Amy up in a big bear hug, and they returned it in kind.

I sat them down and said, "I'm sorry that you had to go through that." I winced as I thought about the impending danger. "And I'm sorry that you're probably gonna have to deal with it again."

Amy shook their head and wiped their eyes where they'd started tearing up. "It's okay, I'll live. It just really sucks that my friends have to take care of me anytime anything happens."

"That's never going to be a problem for us." I tussled their hair and helped them put back on their beanie.

They hugged me again. "Thanks, Derek."

"No problem, Amy." I returned their hug and looked out into the forest.

This place sucks.

Amy and I joined the others to talk with the bug catcher. It turned out that his name was Dane, and he was traveling back to his hometown of Viridian with his Beedrill and Butterfree that he'd been training in Pewter.

Dane was a nice enough guy, but we didn't have the opportunity for conversation with our fear of impending death and destruction.

As a counter to that, we decided to take our lunch break and refuel before heading back into the forest. We said our farewells to Dane and parted ways.

----------------------------------------

The next two days on the trail went quietly. The night immediately after talking to Dane the bug catcher was the most careful we'd spent so far. His warning about a hive of Beedrill hunting for food had brought our want to talk from zero into the negatives.

When it came time to take watches, we now always had two people awake, with Amy feeling well enough to take over a shift. We swapped in half shifts, with someone new taking over halfway through the other person's shift to keep them company. Under the new schedule, I spent some of my watch talking to Amy and the other half talking to Hana. It was a bit of a bummer to have Yuji not on my rotation, but I made up for it by walking next to him in the hiking order.

Amy told me a little more about their past as a psychic. They'd always had the ability to feel other's feelings, and weren't sure where they had gained the ability, as neither of their parents was psychic. They hadn't manifested the ability to properly communicate with their mind or the ability to move objects without touching them yet, but they hoped to expand their control as they caught more psychic Pokemon.

I was fascinated with Amy's abilities. One of my friends basically had superpowers, and they didn't mind me pestering them with questions about it. And now that they'd opened up about it, they seemed just as eager to discuss it with me.

We whispered next to the fire for hours until the alarm went off, signaling Amy for bed. They actually left the fire with a smile on their face, the fatigue from the Heracross fight having finally worn off.

A few minutes later, Hana popped out of the tent. Even from across the camp, I could hear Amy already snoring from the comfort of their bedroll.

I handed Hana a cup of old coffee, as was now our tradition on the third night of being in the red zone.

When they took it happily, I mentioned it. "I don't know how you stand that stuff. It smells like motor oil." I whispered in distaste.

"This stuff?" Hana made a face. "This isn't about taste. This is all about the caffeine."

"You know that's like a drug, right? You're addicted to that crap."

"Yeah, now let me get my fix in peace." She said with a grin.

I shrugged, also grinning. I didn't actually have a stake in the argument, but after two other night shifts together, there was precious little to talk about. Just the light-hearted stuff, and then the deeply personal stuff.

We fell into our normal habit of sitting with our backs against each other, looking out in both directions of the trail to keep watch. I could hear the clicking of my Pokenav+ coming from her side of the camp, though obviously, I couldn't see her without turning around.

"I am going to need that back at some point, ya know?"

Hana clicked her tongue dismissively, but I could hear her smile. "I don't know, it's a pretty nifty device. I might just have to keep it."

"Fine, fine," I said. "I'll sell it to you for one million dollars."

"Oh really? I think you could've gone higher. Well, I'll have my people call your people, and we'll send you a check for it."

We laughed, both stifling our voices as much as we could.

My smile faded as I drifted to thoughts that had been occupying my mind on the trail the last few days.

"A million dollars would be really nice..." I said wistfully.

"You thinking about money again?"

"Again?"

"Back when we were shopping for your date," Hana said. "You mentioned that you were a little low on funds."

I frowned. "Oh, I guess I did."

"You totally don't have to answer if you don't want to, because this is kind of personal, but how low are you?"

Instead of answering, I pulled my wallet clip out of my pocket and handed it over my shoulder to her. She took it and flipped through it, finding the four large bills I had to my name.

I had four thousand pokedollars to live off of for however long it would last me. It wouldn't be a problem until we hit Pewter, and I could stay at the Pokemon Center for free, but I couldn't afford to leave on another route without making some money.

"Oh, that's not that bad," she said, but her tone didn't quite agree. "That'll at least get you some healing supplies in Pewter."

"Yeah, maybe," I sighed.

Hana passed my wallet clip back over her shoulder and took a moment to think.

"Do you want my opinion or my advice?" She finally said.

"Hana, as someone tied for the smartest person I know, I always want your opinion first."

She chuckled. "Is the money the real issue?"

My stomach sank. "No..."

"Derek, have you won any battles since you left home?"

I sighed.

That was my real problem. The money was a symptom of the fact that I had zero wins under my belt. I was nearly two weeks into the season, and I'd only succeeded against a puppy that had been specifically picked to lose to my Pokemon.

"If you're not counting Professor Oak, which I'm not, then nope."

Hana leaned back, resting her head on my back. "You know what I'm going to say, then."

"I almost won against Giovanni, people noticed, and I should be proud of my achievement?" I guessed, considering it was almost verbatim what she'd said a few nights ago.

"Yes, but," she emphasized, "besides us, how many trainers have you actually seen in the last two weeks?"

I thought about it for a moment. "We passed Dane the other day...:

Hana raised her hands, gesturing to the forest around us. "And you couldn't exactly battle in the 'murder woods'."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I guess you're right." And she was right. She was always right.

After the day of Hana's match in the Viridian Gym, almost every other trainer had cleared out of Viridian. The Pokemon Center had been basically empty for our entire stay.

"What does it mean to you, 'to win'?" Hana asked suddenly.

My frown deepened.

"It means to win, right? To beat your opponent."

"But you've already told me that you don't always win by 'winning'. Remember the whole 'make him bleed' plan? You didn't beat your opponent because he was still standing. But you told me that was what you needed to do to win."

I fell fully silent. Hana was getting somewhere with this, and I was going to let her cook.

"When I battle, I don't battle to beat my opponent," she said. "When it's an important battle, I try to be like Lorelei. She's my hero, you know? The only member in the Elite Four's history to be from the Sevii Islands. And she got there by surviving as long as she could in every fight she was in."

Hana sat up and shifted in her seat. I turned to face her and her face was animated. She was getting close to her point.

"That's not a metaphor, by the way," she continued. "Look at her team: Dewgong, Cloister, Lapras. Every one of her Pokemon is a wall. I might have an affinity for Grass-types, but I want to emulate that. As long as I stay in longer than people expect me to, that's how I win in a battle."

Hana looked at me, making her point clear. The reason I didn't have any victories wasn't that I was losing. It's that I didn't have the right mindset to strive for. I'd been close with my plan against Giovanni, but obviously I hadn't meant that one in my heart. Wanting to make people hurt wasn't going to be what got me through a battle.

And not running into any other trainers also didn't help, but that didn't work with the metaphor.

"I think I get what you're putting down. Thanks, Hana."

"Good," she said. "Because I am going to have to charge you one million dollars for the counseling, which happens to be the price of a Poken-"

I shoved her off her log, and we both laughed quietly.

As I pulled her to her feet, I noticed something. "Hey," I asked. "Did you get signal back? Your Pokegear is buzzing."

Hana frowned. "My Pokegear is in my bag, I've had it off since we got to the forest-"

She stopped herself, and her eyes flooded with panic.

Fear shot down my spine as we both looked up.

The black night sky was glowing with dots, but they weren't stars.

They were glistening, red, shiny, compound eyes.

Dozens and dozens of Beedrill eyes, all descending on the camp.

----------------------------------------

Hana made a mad dash for the tent, shouting for our friends to wake up.

I knew she wanted us to run, I did too, but we both knew there was no way to escape that many flying Pokemon. We needed to fight, to scare them off, to do something.

I released Artis. He appeared in a flash but I didn't look down at him before I gave my order. I was too transfixed on the skies.

"Artis!" I yelled, hoping to speed my friends' waking along. "Freeze anything that gets close!"

Three more red flashes of light went off in our camp as my friends all released their Pokemon. They made it to me before the first Beedrill entered camp.

The Hana, Yuji, and I all stood back to back, leaving Amy in the center. They'd been awoken quickly and were obviously feeling all of our fear through their psychic empathy, so we fell into a protective stance. Just because they were at a disadvantage, though, didn't mean they were out of the fight.

Pink psychic shields burst in glowing existence around us, courtesy of Pennywise.

Artis rolled in front of me, cool mist leaking from his mouth as he growled at the incoming bug types.

Desperaoux's purple fur prickled with energy, and the Rattata's eyes focused with laser intensity

Light pneumatic pops sounded from behind me as Paige began to pre-empt her spore attacks.

The first Beedrill that entered camp came from the skies to the south, lowering itself to eye level before gliding in.

This was my first time seeing a Beedrill in person, and it was terrifying.

The poison bee Pokemon stood at three feet in height, but six inches of that made up a fierce pointed white stinger, harder than bone and shaper than steel. Grown on the ends of each of its arms were two similarly wicked-looking yet smaller stingers.

The worst part were the eyes.

The compound eyes of the bug reflected the firelight at a thousand different angles, almost glowing themselves. When people had described the bug type Pokemon's eyes, they always said they were lifeless pits, driven by a hive mentality.

There wasn't anything lifeless about the malice in those eyes.

I swore then and there to never catch a bug type if I lived through the night.

Behind me, I heard several more Beedrill descend, and all hell broke loose.

The first Beedrill rushed towards my side of the circle, bearing its stingers in front of it like a pair of javelins. The tips glowed a bright purple. Poison Sting.

Artis released his first Powder Snow, obscuring the Pokemon in thick white flakes of snow and ice.

I jumped as it burst through the fog, ice covering its wings but still very mobile. Its stingers impacted the barrier in front of me, leaving hairline cracks in it like glass.

Amy whimpered behind me.

"Defense Curl into Rollout!" I yelled, trying to tune out the other orders being shouted behind me.

At the moment that Artis' fur turned silver, the Beedrill slammed the barrier again, getting about an inch of its stinger through the psychic energy.

I ducked down and hefted the log I'd been sitting on earlier over my head.

Artis lept from the ground, a silver and blue bullet, and slammed into the back of the Beedrill. The bug type was pressed between Artis and the psychic barrier, smothering it in an intense impact. It fell to the ground and started to stand back up, but I slammed the log into the back of its head. It went down, fainted.

"Fuck you!" I yelled. "Artis, repeat!"

Two more Beedrill descended from the sky, giving Artis targets. He was building up speed, rolling circles around our shields to get more coverage. Between his natural propulsion from his tail and the Rollout speed, he was easily able to jump ten feet into the air to slam into the second Beedrill.

Desperaoux ran out in front of me, kicking off of the falling second Beedrill as he also lept into the air. His fangs shined with dark type energy as he brought down a crunch of the third Beedrill.

I nodded to Yuji, but he quickly called Desperaoux back as a fourth and fifth Beedrill rounded from behind the trees, headed towards his side of the circle.

I looked away, unable to spare the time as four more descended.

Artis had lost his momentum after KOing the second Beedrill, so instead I gave him a new command. "Give me bursts of snow, buddy! Pace yourself, you don't need to knock 'em out, you just need to keep 'em off us!"

Artis growled in agreement, and began opening and closing his jaw in rhythm to cut off his Powder Snow early. Our most recent training had gotten us to three full-sized blasts, but he could keep up these small ones for a while.

I picked up a large stick off the ground, intending to claim some more knockouts on my own, but Artis' protection gave me enough time to glance at the rest of the battle.

Desperaoux was leaping from Beedrill to Beedrill, using his small size to his advantage as he twirled through the air like an acrobat. His Bites weren't knocking any out on their own anymore, but the Rattata's erratic movements distracted the Beedrill enough to keep them off of us. Occasionally he'd get lucky with a nip to the wing, and they'd go down from the injury.

Hana was having Paige pull double duty. The Bellsprout systematically pumped out several different spore attacks, similar to what I was having Artis do, but also used them in tandem with their Vine Whips to keep the Beedrill at bay.

Amy was kneeling between us all, holding Pennywise in their hands. The Mime Jr. was sweating heavily in concentration, keeping his tiny pink hands raised above his head. Holding our protective barriers was taking everything out of him.

I heard a yelp and looked back

Fuck.

I'd gotten distracted and hadn't noticed that Artis was running low on snow. His breaths were coming in shorter bursts, letting the Beedrill get closer and closer.

He had a gash down his front from where a stinger had gotten past him.

I went to yell for him to return, but I saw a Beedrill act differently from the rest. Its head was reared back, like it was getting ready to spew something out of its creepy bug mouth.

He's not going to have time to move, even if he hears me.

I moved without thinking. I sprinted from behind the psychic shields, pulling Artis' ball free from my belt.

I wasn't going to have time to return him, either.

It was quicker just to move.

Everything went into bullet time as color dimmed in my vision.

I stepped once.

A thick string of viscous goo shot from the Beedrill's mouth.

I stepped again.

I recognized the move. It was String Shot.

I stepped the final time, touching Artis' ball to his side.

He disappeared in a flash of pale red light at the same time the String Shot hit me square in the back.

The impact knocked me forward, and I felt Artis' ball go flying from my hand.

Things sped back up.

The String Shot kept spraying, covering the backs of my arms and legs in a stretchy and sticky material.

Two more Beedrill grabbed onto the string, helping the first lift me up before I ever actually hit the ground.

The others all shouted my name, yelling for their Pokemon to save me.

I was already above the treetops before they made it to Artis' ball.

The sudden lift upwards and the shock of the night hit all at once.

I blacked out.

----------------------------------------

My mouth was cottony and numb, and my head pounded with a dull ache.

My arms were affixed above my head, and I could feel something sharp and rough digging into my back.

I opened my eyes to look, but I began to panic as I felt the pressure of something sticky holding the whole of my upper face still. It didn't cover my nose, but my hair, forehead, and eyes felt solid and thick.

Oh, no. Tears welled underneath my String Shot mask. No, no, no, no, no...

I thrashed against the tree, but the bindings on my arms and legs held firm. The bark dug into my back, scraping it as I tried to escape.

I gave up after... ...I don't know how much time passed. My arms were dead and asleep, and my back felt wet.

I'm going to die...

The thought had never been so prevalent in my mind.

It wasn't unheard of, trainers going missing or dying out on the routes. It was a dangerous world, full of scary things. It made sense. I just never thought it would be me.

I cried. I cried a lot. I cried until the tears wouldn't come.

I had no idea how long I'd been asleep before I'd woken up, but I was severely dehydrated. From the uncomfortable warmth on the left side of my body, the tree that I was stuck to was exposed to the sun.

I'm going to die in the sun without being able to see it. It felt cruel after days in the dark forest.

Dane had told us, he'd given us the warning. The Beedrill nest was looking for food, being unusually close to the route. We'd even listened to his warnings, done everything every guideline had told us, and this still happened.

And that's where I was. There was no mistaking it. The sounds I could hear occasionally flying above me told me I was at the Beedrill nest.

It wasn't fair.

I'd come halfway across the world to die to a bug type. They were Pokemon that weren't strong enough to even be considered in a League team, but they'd gotten me.

I was a failure.

I'd left Artis all alone in his ball. If I hadn't gotten distracted, if I'd been better, he wouldn't have been in danger in the first place.

I thought about my friends. I thought about Daisy. I thought about my mom and dad, and how if I hadn't been stupid enough to travel to a region that I didn't belong to that I'd probably be fine.

Who was the grandstanding for anyway?

I told myself that I'd come here to avoid my parents making it too easy, to stop people who I didn't know from saying that I'd had help on my way to be champion.

I turned down knowledge and resources and advice from the two people who loved me the most to shut up some hypothetical internet trolls.

And I'd still gotten help. My parents still trusted me with Artis, Professor Oak offered to sponsor me, Daisy tutored me, Hana provided my battle strategies, Yuji trained me, and Amy had comforted me.

So my stupid line in the sand really had meant nothing.

It can't mean nothing.

If it meant nothing than I'd really let down the people I really cared for. I hadn't earned their help, I hadn't shown them that I was worth it.

I couldn't die now.

I had to earn it.

I wriggled under my restraints again. They hadn't gotten any weaker, but I had.

I let out a shaky breath.

"Please," I cried softly. "Please, help me, anyone. I need one more chance. I promise, I'll earn it."

The air around me grew cold.

At first I thought it was a trick of the dehydration, some psychosis from dying, but it stayed constant.

"He he he he..." A femine voice, high pitched and whispered, laughed softly.

I held my breath.

The cold deepened as something drifted towards me.

I knew in my heart what this was immediately, but I didn't want to admit it.

Ghost type Pokemon were rare. They weren't as sparce as dragons, but it was close. Even the strongest trainers, unless they had specific training with them, chose to avoid them.

Ghosts were bad news. They were violent and dangerous pranksters. Every single guidebook said not to approach one until you had at least four badges, and even then it was supposed to be with the utmost caution.

I had no choice.

"Please, help me, I whispered.

The presence stopped moving forward, but I could feel something cold and phantom-like touch my face. I tensed every muscle to force myself not to flinch back. I couldn't afford to offend this Pokemon.

"I promise, if I get out of this, I'll earn your help. If you want, you can come with me out of the forest. I'll take you to see the world." My words came out on the verge of begging, but I meant every word.

The presence pulled back from my face and I started to panic that it would leave me.

Something pulled at the bindings on my wrists.

My heart soared as the ghost slowly began to separate the String Shot from my arms.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you..." I repeated during the entire process like a mantra.

My arms came free and lowered to my sides for the first time in I don't know how many hours. They were numb, rubbery, and bloodless from the time elevated, so I began to rub them to get the blood flowing before I had any real motor control.

As soon as I could feel my fingertips, I dug my hands under the edges of the String Shot mask and began to pull away. It hurt, but no worse than a bad waxing.

My eyes blinked and adjusted to the first light they'd seen in hours.

It was early evening, and the sun was setting again. I could see the purple and orange hues in the distance over the tree line.

For a fifty foot radius around me, there was only an open field. The tree I was bound to was the only one in a clearing, and much bigger than any of the others.

I looked closer to my body and my heart nearly stopped. All around me, also stuck to the tree and spaced evenly about two meters apart, were shiny golden cocoons.

Kakuna, the pre-evolution to Beedrill.

They slumbered, or if they were awake they didn't seem to notice me. The cocoons were half a meter tall each, and their outermost layers were dry and cracked. They were close to hatching, just like Dane had said.

Far, far above me, the Beedrill hive itself was in the upper boughs of the tree. Dozens of the hellish bug types fluttered around the branches, too far away to notice my newfound freedom.

I looked around for my rescuer, but I couldn't see them. The air was still cold, so they were still nearby.

"Where did you go?" I whispered, calling out for it.

A sphere of blue-purple energy, vaporous and undefined, began to form in the air in front of me. It was like looking at a figure in the far distance through a low pixel camera, blurred and distorted.

"Thank you. I owe you one."

The purple ball pulsed, and drifted towards my feet. It was urging me to undo the rest of my bindings. I leaned forward, pulling at the String Shot around my legs, finally fully freeing myself.

I stretched my legs, the muscles stiff and aching. The skin on my arms and ankles where the String Shot had been was deeply indented, like the lines left on your skin from an overly tight rope. As I climbed down, I confirmed that I had holes across the back of my shirt and deep scrapes from my thrashing.

I looked around again. Still, neither the Kakuna or the Beedrill had seen me. As long as I was quiet, there was a good chance I could sneak away from the tree and back into the forest. I would have more problems there, but right now I was more worried about the three-foot-tall bees with a selection of stingers.

The air around me warmed up, and I glance around in worry and confusion. My ghost... ...friend(?) was no longer around.

I tightened my shoelaces and took a deep breath. I was weak, bloody, and dehydrated, but I needed to make it out of this forest.

I took one step, and then another, and another. Every shaky step carried me a little farther from the fucked up tree.

I was making progress, halfway there, when a sound broke my heart.

A branch snapped loudly, resounding from the tree behind me.

I turned, and there at the base of the tree, the ghost had formed into a defined form that I recognized.

The tiny shape of a blue face with yellow-red eyes and purple hair, throat covered in a string of ruby beads, stared at me with a mischievous grin on their face. The Misdreavus held the two halves of the stick aloft with a glowing blue energy, clearly having snapped it on purpose.

"Why...?" I asked in a pathetic whimper, tears swelling in my eyes.

I knew why. Misdreavus were known pranksters, and I was the entertainment

I hadn't imagined it at the campsite. The Kakuna's eyes each snapped into a glowing red light when they were awakened. Each one awakened the ones next to and above them, carrying a wave of red light all the way up the trunk.

I'd never seen a more horrifying Christmas tree.

Before the Beedrill began to buzz, before they took off from their branches, before they flew into the woods, I was already sprinting though the forest.

I tripped on branches and stones, fell through bushes and against tree trunks.

The buzz from dozens and dozens of Beedrill was a constant hum in the forest, growing louder by the second.

Barely above that sound, though, I heard yelling far ahead of me.

Human yelling.

People.

I took off in that direction, weaving between thick trees as my stiff legs would let me.

Thunk!

A String Shot slammed into the trunk next to me.

I rolled under a set of branches, panic overcoming but not eradicating my fatigue.

I dodged another String Shot, dashing past a line of bushes.

And there were no more trees in front of me. I'd broken into a clearing of some kind.

I kept running, but I felt myself start to resign. I'd messed up. With no tree and no bushes, I had no cover. They were going to get me again, and there would be no third chance.

A Heracross burst through the treeline to my left, shattering wood and spraying leaves in every direction.

"Heracross!" It screamed its name, drawing out each syllable and grabbing all of the Beedrills' attention. The strong Pokemon had multiple cracks running along the side of its chitin armor.

I know that bug...

More importantly, I knew the black and white haired guy gripping onto its back for dear life.

My face broke into the widest grin and I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Yuji, you crazy bastard! You fucking did it!"

He'd found me, and the smile and relief on his face made all the fatigue melt from my body. My buddy was in control.

Yuji said something to Heracross, and the bug grabbed the trunk of a fallen tree off the ground, easily ten feet long and hundreds of pounds, and brandished it like a massive club.

As the Beedrill approached, Heracross swung the tree in wide arcs, taking out multiple Pokemon in each swing. We might've had a hard time against this swarm, but this forest belonged to Heracross. That bug had lived here its whole life, and it knew how to treat a pesky hive.

From the hole in the treeline behind Heracross, Hana and Amy ran out from the trees. As soon as they spotted me, they ran to meet me, each pushing themselves underneath one of my shoulders to help me limp to cover.

When we made it under tree cover, our group collapsed in the darkness, and both of them wrapped me in a hug. I did the best I could to return it, but I was still weak.

I could feel my consciousness slipping again, feeling safe in my friends' grip.

"Ya, know," I mumbled. "I'm getting a little tired of this forest. Can we go to Pewter now?"

Amy burst into tears and laughter, and they wiped the snot from their nose and nodded.

Hana smiled. "Yeah, Derek," she said, eyes full of tears. "We'll get you there. Rest for now."

That was the last thing I heard as I lost consciousness once again.