Due to all the noise we were making with our chatter, it actually managed to draw some attention toward us as we moved along. I actually considered it something of a benefit, as those who were aware of our approach seemed to be avoiding us for the most part. There wasn't a repeat incident of startling some Pokémon with our approach and nearly getting into a fight. I assumed that their shying away was likely more due to Pidgey's presence than anything else. Not because they were intimidated by her exactly, but more because they had learned not to mess with the flock of Pidgey in this area that was still relatively close to their nesting area.

I wasn't surprised to see that the area was tremendously abundant with bug-type Pokémon, and as we moved along on our little foray we started to see an increase in both the number and variety of bugs around us. Initially, we passed more Weedle, the occasional Scatterbug, and brief glimpses of Caterpie as they squirmed off into the underbrush away from us. Now after almost an hour of travelling through the forest, I was starting to see the glaring appearance of yellow cocoons on the trees around us, either attached to the sides of tree trunks or dangling from beneath branches like angry-looking wind chimes. "Maybe we should head off in another direction? I don't think that Kakuna are going to be forming up that far from at least some of the Beedrill in the area..." I remarked, slowing my pace and dropping my voice to an even more quiet level.

Pidgey, on the other hand, seemed to take it in stride and kept flapping along ahead of me, pausing for me to catch up the same as she has been the entire time. "Nah, don't worry about it. Kakuna aren't actually that dangerous, unless you try and touch their cocoons. They can still try and jab you with a stinger if you're that close! But they're not going to move on their own, unless they want to drop off their trees as an attack and get stuck laying in the grass or something." She didn't even bother to lower her voice as we spoke, and she gestured forward with a wing. "Besides, there should be some berries over here before we get too much farther. At least, they were growing in the area the last time I came out here. Hopefully no one's claimed the spot."

I wanted to retort with 'Like, say, some displaced Beedrill?', but I didn't want to bring that bad luck down upon us by speaking it aloud. "Hopefully." was my only comment instead. In short order, I was able to catch a particularly strong berry-smell drifting on the wind, and it left me with my mouth watering and my stomach growling. Caution warred with hunger, and hunger won out soundly as I hurried along in that direction, leaving Pidgey to swoop after me.

"Hang on, that's not the way I remember!" Pidgey called out to me, wondering why I had diverted.

"I smell something really strongly this way, don't you smell it?" I asked while remaining on the move, greedily bounding in the direction of the strongly-compelling berry scent.

Shaking her head, she followed after me, "I smell something, but I don't think it smells like berries. I can't figure out what it is, but I guess we can check it out."

Despite my eagerness, I spotted more and more Kakuna around us, to the point it no longer looked like a natural arrangement around us. It was like someone had arranged a battalion of bugs across the trees, and the intimidating barrier was enough to knock me out of my hasty rush forward. "Something isn't right here..."

"Maybe we should leave? I've never seen the Kakuna gather up like this before..." My companion finally seemed to have found something that brought her enough concern to lower her voice. Just as I was about to agree, I saw a flash of light on not just one, but three of the nearby Kakuna all at the same time. Oh no. A sharp buzzing filled the air as the figures of the Pokémon grew larger and larger, developing an outline of telltale arm-stingers and wings.

As the newly evolved Beedrill took into the air and glanced our way, another sudden burst of berry-scent hit me in the face like a mallet, much stronger and more intense this time. It almost left me feeling dazed, and the slumped posture of Pidgey next to me made it clear that I wasn't the only one. The Beedrill seemed to be even more affected, and they suddenly disregarded us as if we had turned invisible. They zipped immediately inward into the Kakuna-dense zone, twisting around trees at an almost dangerous speed in their haste to fly inward.

Both Pidgey and I took several steps forward, before she shook her head to clear it and firmly smacked me across the head. The impact jolted me out of my daze and halted my forward hopping. "Can you stop that?" I asked, wiping drool from the corner of my mouth.

"If I didn't smack you, you would have hopped right off into danger! That's not a normal smell! I think that a Pokémon is luring others in by releasing a Sweet Scent on the wind! Not to mention all the crazy amount of Kakuna around here, why did those Beedrill just ignore us and wander off? They're intensely territorial, and I was ready to haul tailfeathers and sprint back to mom! There's no way they would just leave us here where we could be a risk to the other Kakuna!" Pidgey glanced from side to side, and was edging backward slowly. "I think we should get out of here."

I considered her remarks, and figured she was probably right. For a scent to show up so strongly and yet fade so quickly seemed to be an unnatural occurrence. "You're not wrong, but you're the one who thought there was something wrong about this place. If the Beedrill are gathering up a swarm again, it could even put Pidgeotto and all the other Pidgey at risk. You go back and warn them, and I'll transform into a Beedrill and take a look inside."

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"No way! You want me to leave you here alone? Who's going to slap some sense into you if you go all dizzy-eyed over that smell again?"

"I'll be fine! Besides, I should be able to sneak in just fine. You can't transform, and there's no way you'll be able to do anything to help if anything does go wrong. Now that I know something's up, I won't get tricked by that smell again, promise."

The skeptical look Pidgey aimed my way didn't seem to believe me, but she eventually nodded. "Fine! I'll go tell mom. But you better be back before morning! Don't make me stay up all night worried about something awful happening! I won't be able to convince mom to head out to help much in the middle of the night, so if there is a problem... well, just be safe until morning!"

"Alright. If I'm not back by morning, you can come flying in to rescue me." I remarked, more to appease her than anything else. "Now, hurry up and go!" I made a shooing gesture with both hands, before transforming into a Beedrill. The time in my natural form had let me recover a fair bit, so it came to me easily, and I swooped off between the trees to chase after the other Beedrill before she could stop me.

As I flew, the Kakuna seemed to be gathering more and more densely. Sometimes I could barely see the trees beneath the coat of cocoons they were wearing. Hundreds? Thousands? There was a cataclysmic amount of Kakuna gathered here. If all of these hatched and gathered up into a single swarm, it would be like a tsunami of bugs that could sweep over anyone or anything they came across. How had no one else noticed this? Sure, we were out in the woods, but there seemed to be a well-travelled footpath leading into them when we flew overhead.

Along the way, that coaxing scent on the wind returned several times, as if guiding me and the other Beedrill inward. A few more individuals evolved as I passed them, and formed up shortly behind me, making me look almost like a leader of the pack. What unnerved me was the fact that they were eerily silent. They didn't display any excitement or joy at being able to move again or at evolving, like I had seen from the Butterfree back on the pasture. They almost seemed to be moving on auto-pilot, zoned out and reacting on instinct alone. The behavior reinforced each time the scent redoubled, their wings slowing their furious pace briefly, only to redouble their hasty flight forward.

I abruptly broke through the edge of another clearing, and this one was obviously man-made. Stumps ringed the area around the outermost edges, while the inner reaches had the ground torn up as if the stumps had been forcefully ripped from the ground. There was a whole group of several dozen people in green uniforms gathered around camouflaged tents and awnings. At first, I thought they might be some sort of Pokémon Ranger who was already investigating the problem, but they didn't look professional enough for that.

They lounged around in camping chairs, chatting around a campfire, with only a few individuals attending to a swarm of Beedrill nearby. They all had shoulder patches of a green wing on a white cloud, one I didn't recognize from all my past knowledge. The ones that were approaching the swarm were pulling out Pokéballs and using them to collect Beedrill off the edges of the swarm, keeping its size from growing out of control, catching a new Beedrill for every few that mingled with the flock.

That was all I had time to take in. My pause at the edge of the field had made me stand out from the other Beedrill, who had all continued their mad rush forward toward a hovering bug-type Pokémon with a honeycomb-styled dress-like body. One of the men catching Beedrill was staring right at me, and he let out a coarse laugh, calling upward. "Vespiquen, it looks like you're losing some of your charm. One of your suitors is actually hesitating. That, or maybe he's just so taken aback by how pretty you are he's lost even more of his senses than the rest of them. Come on now, gather up the stray puppy, or I'm going to have to switch you out for another and you'll lose your boy-toy swarm."

The Vespiquen stared at me, slowly flittering in my direction with the hoard of Beedrill parting readily for her, peasants parting before their queen. "Don't be shy, now..." The feminine voice that rang out across the distance was vaguely buzzing itself, and it left me swallowing anxiously. It was a decidedly sultry tone that carried far too much enticement, and I was feeling nervous for an entirely different set of reasons, now. "Come on over and join the swarm. I won't bite..." My pulse was quickening, and my wings actually fluttered in an erratic pattern for a moment before I could steady myself. That was... definitely just a biological reaction from being a Beedrill at the moment. My nervousness wasn't my own. Definitely.

Do I oblige and go over? I might be at risk if I mingled with the swarm. I could hold out this transformation until after night fell and try to make my escape, but if they tried to catch me... even if I could break out of a Pokéball, I'd be buried under bodies. Once they caught on to me, I may not get a chance to escape simply being physically detained. But if I turned around and left, I might wind up with the entire swarm of angry bugs chasing after me to please the Vespiquen.

My continued hesitation seemed to annoy the Vespiquen's trainer. "Queenie, hit 'em with another Sweet Scent. Maybe it'll jolt some sense back into him." The bug-type nodded her head at the order, and the sultry tone calling toward me grew firmer, "Stop being difficult. Be a good boy and fly over here." Immediately afterward, I was able to actually see the glittering pink mist that formed seemingly from her wings and was blown toward me. It was like a sledgehammer between the eyes, and I dropped down to the ground. Exaggerating how affected I was to try and buy more time, and to let them lower their guard. My wings fluttered and scooted me a short distance toward the Vespiquen, then I flopped back to the ground as if I was too overcome to fly.

That brought a series of guffawing laughs from the trainer and the others nearby. "You scrambled the poor things brains, Queenie! Fine, give 'em a minute to get their head back on straight, I'm sure he'll fly right on over. Just keep an eye on 'em." The Vespiquen stopped her movement in my direction, seemingly content with my display of being overwhelmed, and resumed sending Sweet Scent out in a variety of directions around the clearing, the luring smell coaxing out more Beedrill from the woods. Great, I bought myself a little bit of time. Now I just need to figure out how to get myself out of this mess...