Alright, time to put my thinking cap on and kick it into overdrive. I've got a few minutes, hopefully, before they decide there's anything else wrong with me lying here on the ground and decide to investigate further. I've either got to make a run for it now, or I've got to head over and mingle with a swarm of Beedrill and hope my acting skills are up to par. The only good news is that the Beedrill are all acting like mind-addled zombies and just want to float in circles around that Vespiquen like her loyal followers. I wouldn't have to put much effort into playing up being quiet and hovering around in the crowd. Of course, I can see those oddball trainers approaching the swarm now and again and catching Beedrill off the edges. I could stay in the middle of the pack and hope for the best?

No. That sounds like a terrible idea. It sounds okay on paper, but there's so many ways that could go wrong and I'd wind up stirring up the hornet's nest. So, option two then: make a break for it and pray that they can't keep up. Of the two, I think it's the better choice. I don't think they have complete control over that Beedrill swarm, otherwise they wouldn't be going out of their way to catch some of them to keep the swarm from growing larger and larger indefinitely. Sure, they have a lure, but they seem more interested in swarming around the Vespiquen than anything else. They probably wouldn't listen to an order to chase me.

The trainers, on the other hand, are a total wildcard in that department. If I wanted to escape, I can turn into Pidgeotto and be completely confident in outrunning the Beedrill. But if any one of those trainers has something faster than that, I'm totally screwed. Imagine making a run for it as a Pidgeotto and one of those people call out a Pidgeot? All I could do would be to bow to big brother obediently at that point! With the wing-and-cloud emblem, I'm almost certain that they're all going to have flying Pokémon of some type, raising the risk of getting caught that much more.

Either way is a gamble without knowing more about the situation. I could try and turn into a Weedle while they're distracted and inch closer for more information, but they're just as likely to catch me anyway rather than shoo me away. I was locked into a paralysis of analysis, so scared of making the wrong decision that I wasn't making any decision at all.

That Vespiquen's trainer glanced at me again, frowning, and I made a show of buzzing my wings in place without lifting myself upward. Ignore me! Ignore me, please just ignore me! I'm nothing special. I'm a rock, just a rock sitting here in a field, so overlook me. I'm... a moron, actually. That's it!

After a few more tense seconds of being stared at, the man's attention shifted upward toward the Vespiquen, and I took the opportunity. It's still a risk, but I think it's the best shot I've got. Please work! I felt the energy course through me briefly, the sprawled Beedrill form curling in on itself and shrinking rapidly. After a moment passed, in the trampled-down grass where the Beedrill had lain was merely a small, entirely unassuming rock.

Why would Ditto only be capable of turning into Pokémon? I've already been chiding myself for not thinking about trying to transform into a person before those officers prompted me to do so, but Ditto can turn into anything, right!? As long as none of them were secretly fanatical geologists and picked up a stray pebble, I can stay like this for several hours. The sun would be down by then, and I'd have better odds of escape!

Transforming into a rock was still very different from pretending to be a Pokémon or even a human. I still felt like I was in my natural form, creating a mimicry more than actually becoming the object I was outwardly displaying. I was still able to feel the grass resting against my bland, now-grey-hued exterior, able to hear the noises going on around me. I was even able to open my eyes to see directly above me if I felt like it, though I was almost certain it would display my eyes through my camouflage and leave me at risk of being caught, so I kept them firmly closed.

A few seconds passed, and then a startled shout of "Hey!" rose in the distance, the voice of the Vespiquen's trainer. "Where did that stray one get off to? I was looking at it just a second ago, and it didn't fly over!"

"Maybe it flew off?" A different voice answered, and then the chimed-in, casual responses of other trainers followed.

"Or it joined the group when you weren't looking?"

"Does it even matter? It's just one stray bug. We've got so many of the things already, what's one more or less?"

The first voice spoke up again in anger, "Alright, shut 'yer traps! Something isn't right. Maybe it was a trainer's Beedrill who was scouting out the swarm? Someone might be snooping around the area, so get off your asses and start looking! But remember, low profile! Nothing that stands out in the area as exotic, too strong, or cross-region! Circle the area and make sure we don't have any uninvited guests or stray Pokémon Rangers!" The voice was slowly getting closer, clearly approaching my position, and I tensed my entire body, feeling all the more like the rock I was supposed to be imitating. Don't move. Don't even think. I'm a rock.

A grumbling series of remarks that seemed to be muttering under their breath drifted toward me, making it clear they were standing all but right overhead. "...bunch'a idiots don't take it seriously when something weird's going on. Stupid stray Beedrill. Didn't even leave any crawl marks, so it must'a flew off somewhere..." A scuff of dirt next to me, then a rain of dirt particles fell down atop me. A series of beeps sounding out as the trainer resumed talking to himself, quietly, "I really don't want to get yelled at again..."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The voice suddenly returned to a normal, conversational volume. "Santalune Forest team, reporting in." A brief pause followed, and barely audible sounds I couldn't make out, likely someone responding on the other end of the line. "No, there's no problem with the numbers. But you said to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, and we had a Beedrill acting oddly and refusing to mingle with the rest of the swarm. It seemed like it was lured in, but it was still showing far too much interest in the camp and looking around, instead of joining up with the swarm immediately like all the rest. We think it might belong to a trainer."

The noises coming from the other end of the line redoubled, and while I still couldn't make out what the other side was saying, they didn't seem to be happy just from the jolting increase in volume. "Wait, Nimbus-!" An absolutely deafening shout interrupted the trainer, and this time I clearly heard "It's administrator Nimbus you twit!" The burst of static from the communication device that accompanied the shout all but seemed to nearly blow out the speaker.

"Administrator Nimbus!" The trainer repeated in a whinging tone, simultaneously managing to sound subservient and annoyed, "You told me to contact you if even the slightest thing seemed out of place! I- … Yes, but- … I'm just doing what you- … Yes, sir." The trainer had been interrupted several times, trying to protest to what seemed to be his increasingly irate superior. I heard one final beep, and the trainer gave a shout of frustration, before I felt a sharp impact against my side and a sensation of soaring.

Ow! Jerk! Just because your boss is bullying you doesn't mean you have to kick me! You're lucky I have to keep pretending! I bounced several times and rolled across the grass before coming to a halt. I really hope he kicked me out toward the trees and not inward toward his camp, as I lost all sense of direction after being tumbled around through the air like that.

Well, I guess that phone call was slightly enlightening, but it didn't give me much more information I didn't already know or could strongly suspect. Those trainers were organized, which any fool could tell from the shared patch and matching attire. They were collecting the Beedrill purposefully, and that was similarly obvious just from the numbers involved. The only real lead on new information I had was this 'administrator Nimbus' person, but that obviously had to be some sort of code-name or something.

At least I had plenty of time to mull it over and think about what else I might be missing. After all, if they had scouts out looking around, now would be a terrible time to try and leave. I'll hunker down for several hours, and then see about making my escape. After all, if I didn't make it back to the Pidgey nesting ground by morning, there may be a storm of birds and bees come sunrise.

Ninety-nine Oran berries on the wall, ninety-nine Oran berries... grab one up, munch it all down, ninety-eight Oran berries on the wall...

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

I hadn't realized just how agonizingly boring it was to sit around and wait for nothing. The first hour or so hadn't been so bad, considering I was able to distract myself with aimless thoughts and serious contemplation about what could be going on here, and how I was going to tell other people about what I had found. The safest bet was to finally make good on my previous idea to see about writing notes to Mable and letting her pass the relevant information along to the authorities. Things like that crossed my mind, at least until I felt I had worked out an outline of a plan.

After that, however, I ran out of things to keep my mind occupied surprisingly quickly. The noises around me were only intermittently interesting, and generally hard to distinguish from the persistent buzzing of Beedrill in the air nearby. Honestly, it was almost like a white noise machine, and it was a struggle not to let it lull me to sleep while I was lying there doing nothing. None of the group of trainers was shouting out at each other anymore, so there was no new information on that front.

Daydreaming, singing songs to myself in my head, fantasizing about going to a Pokémart and gorging myself on every sort of berry they had available, I tried everything to endure sitting there in silence and without moving. At least I wasn't cramping up from holding the rock transformation, and I didn't feel the strain of maintaining it yet.

Eventually the persistent buzzing settled down, and I felt a flicker of excitement run through me. Finally! It seems like the bugs are settling down for the night! I'd give them a little more time to actually settle in and fall asleep, and then I'd make my break for it. Even if the trainers were keeping watch, they couldn't keep the entire perimeter guarded, and they all needed to sleep at some point, too!

When I couldn't stand the boredom anymore, I shifted back to my natural form and opened my eyes. I had landed near the base of a stump, toward the outer reaches of the manmade clearing, but not quite in the forested area yet. I slowly scooted around the stump, putting it between me and the tents of the campsite. It looks like they had put their fire out to avoid standing out in the night, and I wasn't able to see any movement aside from a sparse few flashlight beams crossing around the area.

Good, it looks like the alert phase is over, so to speak, and they didn't take the incident earlier today too seriously. I was still able to see surprisingly well, which I was immensely grateful for. I expected to have to fumble my way through the woods in pitch-black, but it seemed that Pokémon, or at least Ditto, have pretty solid night vision.

I hurriedly moved from stump to stump until I was able to get back to the properly wooded area, and crept along beneath the Kakuna in my natural form. Now that it was night, stealth trumped speed, in my opinion. It took some time, but slowly and steadily I saw the numbers of Kakuna lessen more and more. When I was finally out of their territory, I let out a heavy sigh of relief, and transformed myself back into a Pidgey, breaking the canopy above and soaring into the sky. They shouldn't have any of their Pokémon guarding this far out.

Time to, as Pidgey put it, haul tailfeathers back to the nesting ground. I needed to grab my companion, get back to Mable, and alert someone as to what was going on out in those woods. After all, there was no way a massive collection effort of Beedrill could be anything but a prelude to trouble.