Pokémon: Outcast of Comb Island (Ch3)

[previous: http://pastebin.com/zA02gyz3]


Chapter 3
Old Foes


	Vincent sat down heavily on a barstool and hunched over the counter with a sigh. The bartender, busy wiping down a glass with a cloth, walked over to him and flashed his golden-toothed grin.

	“Good morning, mate,” he said over the sound of someone playing ragtime on the bar’s public piano. “Feeling alright?”

	“Yeah,” Vincent replied. “I’ve just got a long day ahead of me. You know how it goes. I’ve got to do quite a bit of traveling today for my research. Studying the Pokémon of the island, and training that Combee too.”

	“I see. And I’d wager you’re here to break your fast before heading off?”

	“Exactly,” Vincent said, causing the bartender to slide a menu his way.

	“So, how’s your research going?” the bartender asked as Vincent perused the menu. “How much you done so far?”

	Vincent simply shrugged, not taking his eyes off the menu. “Not too much. I’ve caught some Pokémon over the last week here, though CIS4—that’s the Combee I caught yesterday—is the only one I haven’t released back into the wild yet. I’ve also scanned a bunch of Pokémon, and taken plenty of notes.”

	“Found anything interesting?”

	“Not really. I feel like what I’ve done will help the Institute figure out what they want to about Bug-types, and about the Combee culture on this island, but I still haven’t really done anything too interesting or significant. Not that I need to, of course—I haven’t told you yet, I think, but the Bayview Institute was only founded less than a year ago. About half a year ago, I think. They haven’t had much time for data collection, so any info they can obtain is welcome, no matter how insignificant.”

	“Well, did you at least get some good info about that female Combee from yesterday?”

	“I scanned her, but we weren’t able to train much. We’ll have to start again today. So I haven’t made too much progress with her yet.”

	The bartender shrugged. “That ain’t too big a surprise. You caught her late in the day, so you didn’t have much time to do much of anything with her. You’ll probably be able to get more done today, since you’ve got more time now. But speaking of time: how much longer are you going to be here on this island?”

	“Just a few more days, probably, unless the Institute wants me to spend more time here. Why do you ask?”

	“I just remembered hearing about something from a patron a few days ago that might interest you, should you stay here for a while longer. It’s something you might want to check out before you leave. You ever heard of Amber Castles?”

	Vincent looked up from the menu and shook his head. “No. What are they?”

	The bartender grinned and leaned onto the counter, dropping his voice low. “They’re amazing, that’s what. Huge constructs of stone and solid honey built by particularly enormous groups of Combee. They’re found deep underground, and they’re mighty tough to get to. They’re well-hidden and well-defended, so little’s known about them. But rumor has it that there’s at least one on this here island.”

	“Really?” Vincent asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve never heard of them. Are they rare?”

	“Aye, they’re thought to be. The first one to be found is far off in Sinnoh, and there are a few others scattered over the world. I don’t know if there are any on the mainland, but someone came in here a few days ago claiming they’d found a cave on this island that seemed like it could lead to an Amber Castle.”

“Really? Where is it?”

“From what I heard, it’s inside the forest on the north part of the island, not too far from the big field in the middle, but that’s all I know. And I don’t even know if that rumor was true. Still, it might be worth checking out, eh?”

	“Sounds like it,” said Vincent. Already, gears were turning in his head. This would certainly be a big discovery if he could pull it off.

The bartender grinned. “So, if you be looking for something to do besides battling, you may want to check it out,” he said. “Especially since you mentioned that you haven’t done anything significant yet—finding one of those castles would change that right quick.”

	Vincent put a hand to his chin and continued to muse over the bartender’s words. Though he still knew that his research was important, after hearing the bartender’s description of Amber Castles, he felt like it might be a good idea to divert some of his efforts to discovering if one did indeed exist on this island. With that in mind, he decided to take his upcoming research and training to the northern forest, and look for any signs of the Amber Castle while there.

	“That would definitely be interesting to look into,” the researcher said finally. “Thanks for the tip.”

	“Don’t mention it,” said the bartender. “And just because I’m a nice person, here be another tip for you: getting a breakfast here is scientifically proven to make you happier. So with that in mind, can I get you anything?”


***


	Having eaten breakfast and finalized his preparations, Vincent now stood beneath a clear blue sky before the forest once more, his cell phone to his ear. He had received a call from Susie along the way from Costa Town to the forest, and they had talked during the final stretch of the path to the woods.

	“So, you’re saying you didn’t get any samples or test the Rare Elixir after we talked yesterday, huh?” Susie asked.

	“I never got the chance,” Vincent said. “We only ran into a few more Pokémon, and I never had an opportunity to take any samples from them. And even though the Combee fainted, we were in too dangerous a situation to do what I needed to with her.”

	“Well, just try to do it today, then,” she said. “And especially try to get some samples from your Combee. It would only be the second female Combee we’ve gotten samples from on that island, and so any DNA we can get from her would be valuable for understanding the Combee there.”

	“I didn’t know you only took samples from one other,” said Vincent.

	“We sent another researcher there shortly after the Institute was founded,” Susie explained.

	“So, about half a year ago?”

	“Exactly. He caught a few Pokémon, including a female Combee. We got some data about them, but not enough. Though, we did see that some of those Pokémon had interesting variant colorations, but we couldn’t determine a cause—probably just random mutations and whatnot.”

	“Well, I’ve heard of that kind of thing happening before,” Vincent said. “Wonder if I’ll run into any?”

	“Maybe, but that’s not too important. What’s important is that you get data on this Combee of yours and inject the Rare Elixir. Because we only have data on one other female Combee, it’s important to learn as much as we can from this one. So don’t let her die on us, but don’t be worried about letting her faint for the extraction and injection. Understood?”

	“Understood,” Vincent said, and saying goodbye, he hung up and looked into the forest again. The clear skies above suggested that there would not be any rain like there had been yesterday, which meant that he would hopefully be able to train CIS4 quite a bit. But like he had thought last night, he would have to be less kindly and lenient now. Time was limited. He had to act stricter with her, and not use healing items, or run out of the woods like he had yesterday to get her healed. They had to stay in the forest, even if she fainted, and get some data to make up for the lack of it yesterday.

	After looking into the forest a little more, Vincent took the Quick Ball from his belt and clicked its button to release CIS4. She appeared and looked around for a bit before getting her bearings and finally turning to see him. He put the ball back on his belt, opposite the standard Poké Balls containing Scyther and Weavile, and crossed his arms.

	“Alright, just like yesterday, we’re going to head into the forest,” he said. “We’re going to keep training, and I’m going to keep studying how you fight and all that. But should we run into any trouble, I’ll try to be quicker on the draw when it comes to recalling you, so we don’t have the same kind of problem we had yesterday. I’m hoping to travel farther than we did yesterday, and specifically check out the northern part of the island. So, unless you have any objections, let’s get a move on.”

	He walked into the woods, and CIS4 followed close behind him. They both kept watch for wild Pokémon as they traveled along, but Vincent also kept an eye on his phone’s GPS, trying to keep track of their location and determine how best to reach the northern forest of the island. The dirt paths that already existed due to the movements of people and Pokémon around the island were not depicted on the GPS, and not even on the paper map of the island that he had obtained at the beginning of his stay in Costa Town. As such, he could not tell if following the dirt paths would lead anywhere good. He believed it would be easier to reach the central hilly field of the island, then cross it to reach the northern stretch of forest, as opposed to going through the dense woods. With that plan in mind, he continued following the paths westward towards the center of the island, and hoped that the route would not deviate too far.

	Eventually, Vincent put his phone away and took out his Silph Scanner to routinely scan for wild Pokémon. Not long after he began, he detected a nearby Paras, and raised an eyebrow in interest as he looked at its image on the Silph Scanner. He knew that it was a Pokémon species that the Bayview Institute was interested in, due to the strange nature of the fungus that seemed to invariably grow on each individual. As such, he knew that they would like it if he retrieved some of the fungus for them to study. He alerted CIS4 to the presence of the Paras, and pointed into the bush to their left within which it hid.

	“It’s in that bush,” he said. “Try and beat it. Use Gust. That should do a lot of damage.”

	CIS4 flew over to the bushes lining the path, and spotted a patch of orange inside one bush. She kicked up a gust of wind and lashed out at the Paras. The wild Pokémon flew out of the bush and onto the dirt path, and a second Gust easily knocked it out before it knew what hit it.

	“Good,” Vincent said. “Now, CIS4, I want you to stay back while I check it out. I’ll let out Weavile, and the two of you can stand guard for any other wild Pokémon. Don’t worry, she’ll keep you safe if any enemies appear.”

	He released Weavile, and told her to cover him while he approached the unconscious Paras. Weavile did as she was told, but CIS4 watched Vincent instead of the forest, wondering what he was doing. He kneeled down between her and the Paras, then took off his backpack and placed it beside him and began taking things out of it. She could not see what he was doing, so she simply watched him for a bit longer before giving up and turning away to scan the forest with her six eyes, looking for any hostile wild Pokémon.

	Meanwhile, Vincent was already busy getting physical samples from the Paras. From his backpack, he took a small white rectangular box and opened it up to reveal a row of special syringes shaped like cylinders. Each had a button on one end that deployed a hypodermic needle from the opposite end to withdraw the sample and then retract for storage, and they all had labels for differentiating their contents. Some of them had already been used and contained hemolymph samples extracted from the various Pokémon that he had encountered and knocked out previously on the island, but some were empty and ready for use. As he looked them over, he also noted that this happened to be the case containing the Rare Elixir, as the rightmost syringe was filled with a light blue liquid and labeled “Top Secret”. However, he ignored it, as it was not what he needed to use with this Paras. The elixir would have to be saved for when CIS4 fainted, which he hoped would happen soon, as it would end his fretting about having to sabotage her.

	Vincent grabbed one of the empty syringes and touched it to the back of the unconscious Paras, then pressed the button to draw up a small bit of hemolymph from its main body. He then let the needle withdraw and replaced the syringe in its box before taking a pen from his pocket and writing on the cylinder’s label the species of Pokémon the sample was from. After replacing the box in his backpack and his pen in his pocket, he took a plastic bag from his backpack and grabbed the small multitool hanging at his belt. Using its knife blade, he carefully sliced off a few small sections of the fungus and let them fall into the bag. He then sealed the bag up and looked at the Paras with a frown.

	“Sorry about that,” he said to it, though he knew the wild Pokémon could not hear him. “That probably won’t hurt when you wake up. Anyway, just a bit more, then I can leave you.”

	He took out his Silph Scanner, scanned the Paras, and made some notes in his notebook. While he did all this collection and observation with the Paras, CIS4 continued to look around for wild Pokémon. She thought she saw shadowy shapes flitting about amongst the trees, and she recalled having seen something like that yesterday. She squinted her eyes to search, but she did not see them again. Nonetheless, having seen them a second time made her more certain that she was not simply imagining them, but she still had no idea what they were.

	As she kept looking for the shadows to reappear, an unexpected voice from nearby surprised her by saying: “Hey, Combee.” CIS4 looked around quickly, her surprise amplified by being already on edge due to the shadows she had seen. She had never heard that voice before, but she could tell that it sounded somewhat rough and raspy, and seemed to be that of a female. CIS4 looked around for the voice’s source, and soon realized that it had come from Weavile. The Combee looked over at her, and her fellow Pokémon smiled as CIS4 floated down to her eye level and hovered a foot in front of her.

	“Sorry if I spooked you,” Weavile said. “I just realized that I never got the chance to welcome you aboard, so I wanted to talk with you a bit. Anyway, I’m Weavile, the Weavile. And the boss already told me you’re CIS4, right?”

	The Combee bobbed up and down in a nod. “Yes—at least, that’s what he calls me.”

	“Right, then. So, how do you like having a trainer?” Weavile asked, occasionally glancing around at the forest to look for enemies. “Better than being wild?”

	“I’m not sure. I mean, this island’s really dangerous, so it’s good to have some companions. But still, it’s weird how he’s been acting, especially yesterday.”

	“Weird? What do you mean?”

	“I mean he’s acting like he actually cares about me.”

	Weavile smirked. “Of course he does. He’s a real softie. Ain’t nobody he doesn’t care about.”

	CIS4 opened her mouth to speak, but paused and took a few moments to comprehend the meaning behind Weavile’s triple negative before continuing. “But that’s not how it’s supposed to be. He shouldn’t be acting so nice and lenient. How well you fight is all that matters on this island. Beating a weak Pokémon like that Nincada yesterday doesn’t mean anything. And losing against anything, even a tough opponent like that Ariados, means dishonor. And that means becoming outcast.”

	“Seems harsh.”

	“It has to be harsh. This island is dangerous. Weakness can’t be tolerated. We need strong leaders in order to survive, so we can’t praise the weak.”

	“You’re saying you want him to act harsh?” Weavile asked. “Weird thing to want.”

	“No, I didn’t mean it like that. Or, actually, I’m not so sure. It just feels weird for him to be so friendly. Praising me for beating weak foes and helping me when I’m down...” she trailed off into a sigh. “It’s just so strange to me. That kind of behavior doesn’t work around here. We need to be strict to survive. And I’m not sure I can really trust him if he’s acting that way. That kind of behavior would only lead to problems if he were a Combee. That’s not how a leader would act here.”

	“But it’s how leaders act elsewhere,” Weavile said. “Sometimes, at least. He’s a nice guy. He just wants to help you out. Maybe he ain’t leader material from your point of view, but he’s definitely pretty skilled, believe me.”

	The two Pokémon fell silent for a bit and looked away from each other to observe their surroundings. Weavile eventually broke the silence by saying, “Listen. I was bred to be strong, a really skilled fighter. Before the boss became my trainer, I was meant to be a battler and nothing else. I was taught strength is the most important thing there is. But I’ve changed since then. Now I know strength ain’t everything, and being harsh ain’t always the best way to help someone get better. Maybe on this island, you Combee think differently. But we disagree. And while you’re with us, you can’t get all weirded out or distrust us or nothing. You’ve gotta stay with us and trust us, even if we think differently than you. After all, our way works for us, even though it might not work for you.”

	“It’s still odd,” CIS4 said as she looked into the woods.

	Weavile shrugged and crossed her arms, gazing into the forest along with her. “Lots of things are, but that don’t mean they’re bad.” After she said this, she smirked and glanced over at the Combee. “Alright, that got a bit more philosophical than I like to be. I think I’ll shut up for a bit so I don’t say something else dumb like that.”

	The next silence lasted only a few seconds, as Vincent soon called for his Pokémon to rejoin him. They looked over and saw the Paras scuttling along back into the bush they had found it in, and Vincent waving at them.

	“Alright, the Paras is awake again,” he said. “And it’s not hurt too badly. It’ll be fine. Now, let’s get a move on. We still have a ways to go before the northern forest.”

	Weavile and CIS4 returned to Vincent, and the researcher grabbed Weavile’s Poké Ball and recalled her. He left CIS4 out, and the two of them continued down the path.


***


	They had been walking for a while when CIS4 suddenly buzzed loudly, which got Vincent’s attention and made him look up from his GPS. He quickly saw the cause for her concern: a Venipede stood in the middle of the dirt path and blocked the way. Its antennae swayed about as it warily eyed the duo in front of it.

	“Well, this should be a bit more of a challenge than that Paras,” Vincent said as he pocketed his phone. “I think it would be good training to fight it, CIS4. Ready?”

	The Combee hovered forward, and the Venipede glared at her before screeching. CIS4 winced in response, and while she was distracted, the Venipede prepared to attack. It opened its mouth, and a small ball of energy began to grow right in front of it as it charged its upcoming move.

	“Quick, use Gust!” Vincent ordered, and CIS4 obeyed. The Venipede hissed and slid back as the harsh wind blew over it, but it was undeterred. It finished charging its attack and unleashed it as a Poison Sting, spitting a series of glowing darts of energy at its Combee foe. Some struck CIS4 and made her drop out of the air a short distance before recovering.

	“Use Gust,” Vincent repeated. CIS4 fought back the pain and did as Vincent said. The second Gust knocked the Venipede off its feet and onto its back, but it then curled up into a ball and rolled along the ground towards CIS4. Before reaching her, it bounced up into the air and struck the surprised Combee, knocking her out of the air and to the ground. The Venipede landed next to her, but to her surprise as well as Vincent’s, it ignored her and simply rolled away into the bushes lining the path. Vincent watched it go, and then glanced over to CIS4, who beat her wings weakly and rose into the air again. While she looked around for the Venipede in an attempt to see if she was still at risk, Vincent swung his backpack around to his front and unzipped it, then reached in to grab a Potion. But he paused as he recalled what Susie had said, and what his orders were for studying this Combee.

	“If I don’t heal her, she’ll be at a greater risk of fainting next time she fights,” he thought. “And if that happens, then I’ll be able to get those samples the Institute wants. So maybe I shouldn’t heal her.”

	He swung his backpack onto his back again, and CIS4 finally hovered over to him with a sad expression on each of her three faces.

	“But still, I hate to see a Pokémon in pain,” he thought, her expression arousing pity in him. “I’ll see how she does next battle. Maybe I’ll heal her then.”

	Vincent looked at CIS4 and adopted a blank expression. “Too bad it escaped,” he began, “but we might as well carry on. Let’s go find some more wild Pokémon to fight.”

	He walked past her, and she followed him, filled with mixed emotions.

	“He seems to be a bit stricter now,” she thought. “He didn’t praise me for my effort with those last two fights, and now he isn’t healing me. That’s more like what I’m used to. But I don’t know if I can make it through another fight without healing.”

	She flew after Vincent, and they traveled through the forest for a while without incident. Vincent kept checking his GPS, which told him that they were heading towards the big field in the middle of the island like he had planned. As he pocketed his phone, a quiet rustling sound caught his attention and made him pause. It sounded like wind moving through the branches, but there had been no wind yet all day. He looked for the source of the noise, trying to tell if it was starting to become windy all of a sudden, and quickly spotted the true source of the noise: a quartet of Burmy hanging from a high tree branch crossing the path overhead. Their eyes were closed and they appeared to be asleep, though they occasionally moved slightly in their sleep and produced with their leafy cloaks the rustling sound he had heard.

	Vincent stopped, and CIS4 stopped behind him before looking up at what had caught the human’s attention. She saw the Burmy above, and hovered down a bit to put a bit more distance between them and her. Though she knew that they were a weak kind of Pokémon, she felt nervous about the advantage they had over her in terms of numbers, and her weakened and injured state amplified that anxiety.

	Meanwhile, Vincent pondered whether or not to have CIS4 engage them. “Even though they’re asleep, they could probably take CIS4 out if they woke up,” he thought as he observed the Burmy. “I feel like I should have her fight them and see how it goes. Burmy aren’t much of a threat, so she won’t be too badly hurt by them, but they’ll probably knock her out. And then I can get that sample.”

	He looked back at CIS4, who by now was hovering at the level of his waist, and turned to face her. She floated up towards his face as he addressed her.

	“CIS4, you could probably take those Burmy out easily if you ambushed them,” he lied. “Go ahead. Hit them with Gust.”

	CIS4 doubted that she could succeed, but she found his insistence encouraging. “Since he’s being strict with me now,” she thought, “maybe he wants to see me prove myself. Even though this might be a tough fight, since they have strength in numbers, he thinks I can do it. And I definitely don’t want to refuse and let him think I’m weak.” She set her face into a determined expression. “I haven’t had much success fighting lately. I’ve beaten a few foes, but none strong enough to mean anything. I need to get my honor back somehow. And this seems like the way to do it.”

	She hovered up towards the Burmy, and after beating her wings and charging up her attack as much as possible, she unleashed a strong wind against the Burmy. They woke up as the Gust blew over them and abruptly knocked them from the branch and onto the ground below. They landed hard, crying out in surprise, and one even lost its cloak, which shattered into a cloud of leaves as it hit the ground. After glancing down at its exposed body, the bare Burmy chattered angrily and scurried away into the bushes to rebuild its cloak. Meanwhile, its three fellows got upright and leaned back to look up at CIS4. The Combee looked down at them, and despite the odds, began to charge another attack against them.

	As she did so, the three Burmy jumped into action unexpectedly. One after the other, they uncoiled their long black antennae and tossed them upwards, latching on to a nearby low-hanging branch. They pulled themselves up and let go before they reached the branch in order to keep their momentum going and throw themselves into the air. While airborne, they threw out their antennae again and coiled them around the branch they had been hanging on originally, and quickly pulled themselves towards it.

	CIS4 had seen Burmy do this before, so she was not surprised by their movements. What she was surprised by was how quickly they pulled themselves along. They did so far faster than she had anticipated, and flew at her so rapidly that she could only dodge the first Burmy. She reeled at the impact, and the other two immediately slammed into her one after the other. She fell from the air again with a pained buzz. She crashed into the dirt ground and blacked out with the impact.


***


	The three Burmy looked down at the fallen Combee, but did not attack her again. They merely closed their eyes again and resumed their rest. Meanwhile, Vincent grabbed the two Poké Balls at his side and tossed them, releasing Scyther and Weavile. The two Pokémon looked up at him, awaiting orders.

	“Cover me,” he said. “I’ll heal CIS4. Don’t let any wild Pokémon get us.”

	The two Pokémon nodded and stood guard while Vincent walked over to CIS4 and kneeled beside her.

	“Well, looks like that did the trick,” he said quietly. “Sorry, CIS4. As much as I hate doing this, it’s the best way to get this kind of data.”

	Though he knew she could not hear him, like with the Paras from before, he still felt better apologizing to the fallen Pokémon before doing what he was about to do. He reached into his backpack and took out the box of syringes, and he was busy wondering if he should start by injecting her with the Rare Elixir or extracting some hemolymph instead when a quiet buzzing distracted him. He looked down at CIS4 in time to see her open her eyes groggily. She blinked a few times and looked up at him, but he had already returned the container into his backpack before CIS4 could get a good look at it.

	While the Combee looked up at him confused as to what he was doing kneeling above her, he kept his hand in his backpack and contemplated whether or not to heal her now. Though healing her would mean that it would take more time to get her knocked out, keeping her at such low health meant that one more powerful hit could severely wound her, or perhaps even kill her. By healing her, he ensured that she would be far less likely to suffer such a fate. And he certainly wanted to avoid that, so he finally decided to heal her.

	“You’re awake,” he said quickly. “Good. I’ll heal you up and we can keep moving.”

	He grabbed a Potion and sprayed it onto the Combee, who beat her wings quicker and opened her eyes wider once the mist flowed over her. She felt energized again, and hovered off the ground while smiling at the human. Vincent did not return her smile; though he was happy that she was now healed, he knew that he now had to refuse to heal her further until she fainted a second time, and so he would have to go through all that again. He hated to see Pokémon in pain, and to not heal them when they needed it, but it was necessary to get what he needed. So he stood and recalled Weavile and Scyther, then motioned for CIS4 to follow him as he resumed walking through the forest, wondering when the time would come again that he would have to make that same choice, to heal or not to heal.


***


	Though the duo could see wild Pokémon moving about in the distance among the trees, and Vincent’s scanner detected even more outside their range of vision, they encountered no more wild Pokémon in the forest. They were all too distant or fled before Vincent and CIS4 could approach, and so they fought no more battles.

	Soon, the woods soon began to thin out, and in a matter of minutes, the researcher and the Pokémon finally emerged from amongst the trees and undergrowth into a huge open field of tall grass and rolling hills, spread out beneath a slightly cloudy blue sky. Vincent hurried through the foot-tall grass, while CIS4 hovered above his head, and they crested the closest hill to get a better view of their surroundings. The hill was high enough to offer a view of much of the surrounding area. From their vantage point, they could see that the field was surrounded by forest, but the hills all around obscured parts of the field and made it difficult to see very far. From what they could see, the hilly field was very large, but they could only see very few Pokémon wandering about, a contrast to the much more densely populated forest.

	“So, this is the field in the island’s center,” Vincent murmured as he checked the GPS on his phone. “If we turn right and cross it, we should reach the northern forest soon. And then, we can keep training and also look for that Amber Castle, all at the same time.”

	While he whispered to himself too quietly for CIS4 to hear, the Combee flew higher up and turned circles in the air to observe the field. She had only been here a few times, as she commonly tried to avoid the area due to its lack of protective cover. She felt nervous looking out over the huge, open expanse, the only available hiding places being the tall grass and the other sides of the various hills. But from her high vantage point she could see over the many hills and realize that the field, though large, was not endless. They would not have to stay in it long.

	“Hey, look! Vikavolt!”

	CIS4 looked down at Vincent, who had shouted out and was pointing off into the distance. She looked over there and saw a group of the aforementioned Vikavolt gathered in the tall grass atop a nearby hill. She hovered down to his side, as she felt far safer near him than up in the open air by herself, and watched the Vikavolt warily.

	“Those aren’t too common on the mainland,” Vincent explained. “They only evolve in the presence of unique electric fields. The Institute will really like having some data about them, so I’d like to go scan them and make some notes about them. But they’re too tough for you to fight, CIS4. Stay here while I scan them. I’ll leave Weavile with you again.”

	He grabbed the two standard Poké Balls at his belt and clicked the buttons to release Scyther and Weavile. They landed beside him and looked up at him expectantly.

	“Weavile, I’m going to take Scyther and observe those Vikavolt over there,” he said to her, then he turned to Scyther and added, “And Scyther, don’t try out any mating dances with them, alright? I can’t have you doing that every time we meet a Bug-type outside of battle.”

	Weavile smirked at Scyther, who averted his gaze from her and Vincent sheepishly. The researcher sighed and looked over at Weavile. “Can you stay with CIS4 and make sure she’s safe?” he asked.

	Weavile cocked her head to the side and pointed to the Quick Ball on Vincent’s belt.

	“I would recall her,” Vincent said, able to guess her meaning, “but I don’t want to keep her in there too much. It would be better for her to fly about and get fresh air. Besides, I don’t want her to get too used to it, because—”

	He stopped himself there. He suddenly remembered what had been in the back of his mind sine he caught CIS4. Though he had thought about it every so often, he had not given it too much attention. Now it had come to the forefront of his mind, and he knew that the real reason he did not want CIS4 to get too used to her ball was because he planned to release her back into the wild at the end of his research.

	He also remembered that he had not told CIS4 that he would eventually leave her behind on the island. Like he had told the bartender yesterday, female Combee were so rare on the island that taking one away might end up affecting the whole ecosystem. He also recalled what he had thought about last night regarding the chance that the Combee might flee or refuse to cooperate with him anymore should she learn what he planned to do to her in the end. It was likely that he would need to leave CIS4 behind when he left, but telling her now could make her hate him. These thoughts made him decide—though not without hesitation—to keep the Combee in the dark, and delay the reveal until the end so he could complete his research without trouble.

	“Yeah, just stay with CIS4 and keep her safe,” Vincent said to Weavile. “I’ll be back soon. Hopefully without a bunch of Vikavolt chasing me.”

	Weavile smirked and watched him and Scyther go, then crossed her arms and turned to observe the forest. CIS4 hovered above her, silently watching the forest with her, keeping watch for any Pokémon that might come out and attack them in the open. They saw no such thing, but as CIS4 observed the forest, she noticed some shadows moving about, just like she had earlier that day and once yesterday. Unlike the last two times, they seemed to be closer and did not move out of sight, and CIS4 could keep track of them easier.

	“You see those shadows too, huh?” Weavile asked, noticing where CIS4’s six eyes were aimed.

	“Yes,” the Combee said. “Can we move closer and get a better look at them?”

	“They seem small enough to not be much of a threat,” Weavile said with a shrug. “Guess it probably wouldn’t hurt to get closer.”

	The duo descended the hill down the slope opposite the way Vincent had gone, and when they reached its base, they could see the dark shapes in the forest more clearly. They were moving, and occasionally passed into areas of light where the forest canopy opened to let sunlight down, and so Weavile and CIS4 could recognize their species. The group was comprised of about a dozen Combee following a Ledyba. Weavile cocked her head in confusion as she saw this odd sight, but CIS4 simply frowned with all three of her mouths. She had seen this kind of thing before. There was only one Ledyba on the island who could possibly have Combee followers, as if it were a Combee warlord. A Ledyba CIS4 knew, who worked for a warlord she knew. Both of them old foes of hers.

	“Weavile,” she said, “I know that Ledyba.”

	“Do you?” Weavile asked, crossing her arms.

	“Yes. And I want to talk to him.”

	“Hang on,” Weavile said. “It might be dangerous for you to go back into the forest without the boss and Scyther. I mean, I could totally take anything this forest has to throw at us, but you can’t. And I can’t protect you the whole time. If a strong wild Pokémon showed up, you could get hurt.”

	“Then you should just follow me closely,” CIS4 said. “But stay out of sight. And hurry, before they get too far away!”

	“Wait, first of all, what do you even want to talk to him about?”

	CIS4 stopped and turned to Weavile. “He’s part of the swarm of the Combee who beat me a few days ago. That Combee’s my rival—we’ve fought each other a lot of times before, but I haven’t seen her recently. I want to know if she’s gotten stronger since I last met her, and that Ledyba can tell me how she’s been doing recently. It’s important to keep track of the other warlords on the island, so I want to know how she’s doing.”

	“So you just want to keep tabs on your rival?” Weavile said. “Well, I guess that’s an okay reason. I’m still not sure going back into the woods is a good idea, but we can try.”

	CIS4 thanked her, and the duo returned to the forest. Weavile stuck to the undergrowth and the shadows, calling upon her kind’s natural talent at hiding to remain undetected and allow CIS4 to approach the group alone like she had requested of her. She peered out from among the bushes and kept a close eye on the Combee. She wanted to be prepared to protect the bug if anything bad happened.

	Meanwhile, CIS4 flew through the air and approached the group from behind. Once she was in range, she called out the name she believed the Ledyba had: “Taranza!”

	The Ledyba spun around towards the voice. At this distance, she could recognize that he was indeed Taranza: he was somewhat smaller than the average Ledyba, though still bigger than any Combee, and had orange eyes unlike other Ledyba. As he turned, so too did the Combee accompanying him, and as they saw CIS4, they gathered in front of the Ledyba and buzzed intimidatingly. However, the Ledyba’s orange eyes widened as he looked at the lone female Combee, and he waved at the dozen Combee before him.

	“Stand down,” Taranza said in a rather soft and sibilant voice. “She is not an enemy. Not technically.”

	The dozen Combee drifted apart and allowed Taranza to fly through them towards CIS4. The female Combee hovered in place as he approached. CIS4 felt somewhat intimidated as he approached her, but she stayed in place and stared him down.

	“I recognize you,” Taranza said as he came within a few feet of CIS4. “You’re that pesky outcast who won’t stop trying to best Her Highness. Aren’t you?”

	CIS4 winced at his mention of her caste, but she did not show her anger any further. She bobbed up and down and said simply, “Yes, I am.”

	“I see. Tell me, did you not fight her again recently? She mentioned that you fought her several days ago, and lost.”

	“I did,” CIS4 said, lowering her gaze.

	Taranza nodded. “Her Highness truly is a powerful fighter. It is to be expected you would lose—but that is not to say you are especially weak. Most Combee would stand no chance against her. I only wish I could have watched to see how she fought. It has been many days since I watched her duel another warlord. I have not been able to attend any duels lately, as I have been busy leading this squad of mine and performing many missions for Her Highness. She is very near evolution, and so we need to find a prime location to build her castle.”

	CIS4 looked up in surprise. “Wait, she’s about to evolve? Really?”

	“Yes, and I would be surprised if it took more than a day or two for her to do so. By then, we should have a place to build her castle. But enough about us. Why are you here? I am sure that you did not approach us just to say hello.”

	“I haven’t seen you in a while,” CIS4 said, “and I haven’t seen your warlord either since our fight. I thought you could tell me how she was doing since we last met.”

	“Interesting. You are curious about that because you are rivals, I presume? If you must know, she is doing fine. Like I said, she is about to evolve, and her swarm grows by the day. We will become a strong force when we find a place to build the castle, and complete it. Does that answer your question?”

	CIS4 bobbed up and down in a slow nod as she thought about what the Ledyba had said. The news of her rival’s impending evolution was unexpected, and it worried her. A lowly Combee such as herself would be completely incapable of besting a Vespiquen. This information convinced her to avoid the warlord. The fact that her rival had gained enough experience to grow so close to evolution proved that she was even stronger than CIS4 had thought her to be.

	The Combee thanked the Ledyba for his information, but Taranza responded by asking her a question of his own: “Before you leave, there is one thing that confuses me about you. I see you have no followers with you. That is very odd. Have you not acquired any since the duel?”

	“No,” said CIS4, “I couldn’t find any.”

	“But that was days ago. It is very rare for an outcast to survive for so long alone.”

	“I’m not alone,” the Combee said.

	“Then where are your followers?”

	“Like I said, I don’t have any.”

	“Then what do you mean you’re not alone? Are you following another warlord, then?”

	“No. I was...” CIS4 hesitated, unsure of how to tell Taranza about the human. Most Pokémon on the island feared humans, a fact she recalled as she remembered how she had tried to flee the human before he caught her. Though he turned out to be a kind person who seemed interested in her safety, the fact still stood that most other Pokémon had never had such an experience, and so they retained that fear. Taranza and his Combee would fear humans as well, but she felt like she could tell them about what happened to her without riling them up too much.

	“Yesterday, I was caught by a human,” she said at last. Taranza and the Combee stared in surprise. The Combee began to chatter amongst themselves, while Taranza frowned at the outcast.

	“A human?” he repeated. “You know what humans are like, right? You cannot trust a human, outcast. Beware him.”

	“He doesn’t mean me any harm,” CIS4 said. “He hasn’t hurt me yet. And when I was hurt in battle, he healed me.”

	“That means nothing,” Taranza said, “unless he did so out of kindness. Did he? Or was it out of necessity?”

	CIS4 paused. “Well, soon after he caught me, he did tell me he wanted to research me, so he didn’t want me to get hurt.”

	“That suggests that he only wants to help you for his own purposes, for his own research.”

	“Just because he wants to keep me safe for his research doesn’t mean that’s the only reason he’s helping me,” CIS4 said, narrowing her eyes. “How can you say for sure that he doesn’t care about me?”

	Taranza glared at her, but then he hung his head and sighed. “Because I know what humans are like.”

	“What do you mean? How can you know what they’re like?”

	Taranza did not reply. Instead, he looked up and asked another question. “Outcast, do you think he’s planning to keep you?”

	CIS4 wanted to push him to answer her question, but she decided to answer his first, just to see where he was going with it. She realized that she had never given the question much thought before. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe he is. I hope he is. I’d like to leave this island, honestly. Life would be easier with him and his group.”

	“I agree,” said Taranza. “Despite all those rumors amongst our kind about how cruel humans can be, they still offer the only hope of leaving this island and all its hardships and fighting. But even so, I doubt that your human is going to take you from this island. He will likely do what he needs to, and then abandon you here.”

	CIS4 glared at Taranza. “I’m not so sure. Why would he do that?”

	“I will not say it is guaranteed,” Taranza said. “Perhaps he does plan to take you from here. But you should know that in the past, as far as I and Her Highness know, that kind of thing has almost never happened. Humans do not take Pokémon away from this island.”

	“How would you know?”

	“Because I have studied humans and how they act towards the Pokémon of this island,” he said. “Especially those that they have caught. Myself included.”

	CIS4 drifted back as realization struck her. “You were caught by a human?”

	Taranza opened his mouth to reply, but his orange eyes glanced to the side and narrowed. CIS4 looked over as well and saw the human standing at the edge of the forest, hands cupped to his mouth as he shouted: “CIS4! Weavile! Where are you? Come back!”

	CIS4 looked back at Taranza, but he was already hovering away from her. “We can continue this talk later,” he said as he returned to the group of Combee. “I’ll be watching you.”

	They turned and flew away into the darkness of the forest without another word. CIS4 watched them go, then slowly turned away. Weavile had stepped out from amongst the bushes where she had hidden, and waited for CIS4 to return to her before they went back towards the field and Vincent, who stood there and waved as he finally spotted them within the forest.

	“What were you talking about back there?” she asked. “Sounded like a bunch of buzzing to me. Was that your own kind of secret buggy language or something?”

	CIS4 did not reply. Her gaze was lowered, and her head filled with thoughts and doubts. She was still unsure what to think about the human, and she did not know if Taranza’s claims that she would be abandoned were accurate. Did the human actually care about her as more than just a source of data in his research, or would he abandon her to the dangerous wilds as soon as his studies were complete? She had no way of knowing, and no way to ask the human. But perhaps when she spoke with Taranza again, she could get some more information from him. Though he worked for the crimson-marked Combee, and CIS4 and Taranza were not on the friendliest of terms, he might be able to tell her more information to help her determine how the human truly intended to treat her.

	CIS4 resolved to remain with the human for now, as he and his two Pokémon were the only source of companionship and protection she had. And as an outcast of Comb Island, that was something that she did not want to give up.


[next: http://pastebin.com/m2X5zrVK]