The Strangely Menacing Swarm of Giant Beedrill (3/3)

“You know me?” Tong Si looked at the three people before him, confusion flickering in his eyes.

“Of course we do. You’re the Rookie King of Jiahua City—who doesn’t know your name? Actually, the three of us also entered the Rookie King Tournament, but we were knocked out in the first round.” One of them, a trainer with a somewhat naive and honest look, scratched his head in embarrassment.

“Tong Si, thank you so much for coming to our rescue. If it weren’t for you, I’d have been terrified I’d never make it back,” another trainer said, his face still pale from fright.

“Watch out!” Just as the two trainers were beginning to relax, the third suddenly cried out.

Tong Si turned around to see a lone Beedrill darting toward them.

“Eevee, use Thunder Shock!” Tong Si shouted. The Eevee, who’d slipped through the underbrush at his side, leapt into the air.

“Eevee!” With a cry, golden electricity crackled over Eevee’s fur, and a simple Thunder Shock struck the oncoming Beedrill, sending it reeling.

“Go hide behind that tree over there. Leave these Beedrill to me!” Tong Si ordered the three.

They understood immediately and dashed behind an ancient tree, hiding themselves from view.

“Electabuzz, are you all right?” Tong Si called out, worry creeping into his voice as he watched Electabuzz fending off the swarm alone.

While Electabuzz had maintained a one-hundred-match win streak at the Golden Sun Club, those were all one-on-one battles. Even in the Rookie King’s preliminary battle royale, the opponents had been weak—nothing compared to this. These Beedrill were fierce. The strongest among them might only be level fifteen, but their attacks were sharp and relentless, as if each blow was meant to be fatal.

“Electabuzz!” In the midst of battle, Electabuzz flashed a reassuring hand sign: he could keep fighting.

Already, Electabuzz had taken down more than ten Beedrill since the fight began. But still, over thirty remained—and more kept flying in from the distance.

“What on earth is happening here?” Tong Si wondered as he watched more Beedrill appear.

“I’ll leave this to you, Electabuzz!” After a quick word, Tong Si set off with Eevee in the direction from which the Beedrill were coming.

“Wait for me… Tong Si… huff, huff…” Jiang Tao finally caught up, bracing himself against a tree as he panted for breath.

“Jiang Tao, stay here and don’t go anywhere!”

Tong Si shouted back, then turned and ran on.

“Running off again? What’s going on?” Jiang Tao wiped sweat from his forehead, perplexed. But seeing the swarm of Beedrill ganging up on Electabuzz made his blood run cold. He quickly released his Slowpoke to join the fray.

“I’m not a coward! When the going gets tough, it’s my time to shine!” he muttered, feeling this was his moment, even if he didn’t quite understand why.

Tong Si and Eevee pressed on, encountering more Beedrill along the way, but Eevee dispatched them easily with Thunder Shock.

Tong Si was surprised to find that the Beedrill attacking them were mostly low-level—around level ten, some even as low as six. How could this be? A Weedle at level six would hardly have evolved into a Kakuna, let alone a Beedrill.

As he and Eevee ventured deeper into the woods, Tong Si finally noticed something odd: there were almost no other Pokémon around—only Beedrill. Yet, scattered on the tree trunks were the empty shells of Kakuna.

It’s well-known that when a bug-type Pokémon evolves into its pupal stage, a hard shell encases it for protection until it evolves again, leaving the husk behind.

There were several such husks on the trees here. Tong Si walked slowly, scanning the area in puzzlement.

“These shells all look fresh. That means those Beedrill must have only just evolved,” he concluded after examining the husks.

As he advanced, he heard faint noises ahead.

“Eevee, keep quiet,” he whispered, signaling Eevee to follow as he crouched low and crept through the underbrush.

That was when he spotted a truck.

A truck, here in the forest? Tong Si wondered how it could possibly have driven into such rough, narrow terrain.

Behind the wheel sat a figure in brown clothing. In front of the truck stood two more, also dressed in brown, standing guard.

“What are they doing?” Tong Si murmured under his breath.

Just then, he heard movement from inside the truck—a flash of white light.

A Beedrill’s cry rang out, and soon another Beedrill flew out from inside. Tong Si quickly scanned it with his device—it was only level five! Even lower than the others he’d encountered.

“What?” Tong Si felt a jolt of shock.

What was happening inside that truck? Why would a level five Beedrill appear?

Could it be… these Beedrill didn’t appear by accident, but were deliberately created? Tong Si’s instincts screamed the answer.

It was highly unnatural for so many low-level Beedrill to appear. But if it was man-made, who could be behind it? What kind of person could force Pokémon to evolve prematurely? The whole thing was shrouded in mystery.

“That should do it. Let’s head to the next site,” came a voice from inside the truck. Though it was faint, Tong Si was close enough to catch the words.

“The Beedrill evolution experiment was a success. We’ve gathered plenty of useful data for our research. Time to move on and test another species.”

“Yes, sir!”

Tong Si guessed there were two people inside, and their conversation made his brow furrow with anger.

“Experiment?” They were experimenting with Beedrill evolution?

“Damn it! How dare they use Pokémon evolution for their own experiments!” Rage flared in Tong Si’s chest, and he slammed his fist into the ground.

The sound snapped a branch beneath his hand—an unmistakable crack.

“Who’s there?” The two outside the truck reacted instantly, rushing toward the thicket.

“Damn, I’ve been spotted!” Tong Si leapt to his feet and dashed away, Eevee sprinting at his side.

“After him!” The two men caught sight of Tong Si’s fleeing figure and immediately gave chase.

…To be continued.