A/N: I really should have given this person a mention before, thank you, alternate lopunnu for commenting on every chapter ;) your reviews always make my day.

Another quick note, I will use your OCs repeatedly even if they already were in a scene, so keep your eyes peeled!

Needless to say, the journey towards Eterna from that night on was less than pleasant for Aretha. June, after finally realizing that not only would that gible travel with them until they found her long lost trainer, she would have to stand her 24/7 since the gible didn't have a Poké ball. So she decided to make Aretha´s life as difficult as possible until they got to Eterna.

"Arethaaaaa" whined June for what seemed the thirtieth time. "It´s not faaaair, how come you get to have four Pokémon when I only have three? Well… more like two, Moon never obeys me or does anything a trainer Pokémon should"

Aretha sighed exasperatedly and tucked a piece of stray black and blue hair behind her ear "First of all, she's not mine, she's her trainers and I'm just helping her get back to him or her, and second, that is of no concern of mine"

"But its not faaaair" whined June. "She would still count as yours for the time being, and you're only supposed to have six Pokémon in your party"

"Not true" said Aretha. "You carry as many Pokémon as you can-"

"Which is six" said June, crossing her arms.

"No! You're allowed to take as many Pokémon as you want; you just have to bring the normal amount of Pokémon to Pokéathlons, Pokémon contests and gym battles"

"Since when?"

"Since SS began, and even before that it's not like anyone followed the rule" said Aretha, crossing her arms this time.

"Hmm… well, you still have loads of Pokémon" said June decidedly.

Aretha puffed out her cheeks. "Well, if it bothers you so much why don't you catch a ponyta or something? They live around here"

"I don't like fire types" said June.

"That's not my problem!" said Aretha, beginning to get really annoyed. "You're acting like a spoiled brat, and its bad enough having Ukko bully that poor gible around so much"

"He's not bullying her" said June slowly. "He is stopping her from ripping my shoulder open again"

"There you go again with the whole 'ooh I'm so scared cause a gible nearly bit me to death' thing" said Aretha, viciously kicking a pebble from her path. "She's not doing anything, yet he keeps glaring at her like she was…"

"A monster?" finished June. "I'd say he has all the right in the world to keep her from crossing the line"

"What line?" said Aretha, checking the Sinnoh dex's glowing screen, which showed the winding path they were on "You of all people should know the effects of SS well, and be quiet, I'm trying to read this map, Aww crap, I think it led us on a wrong path" she tapped the screen and sighed.

"Well, I…" began June, but after a sharp glare from Aretha she focused on the path before her; watching Ukko and the gible walk a little further from them.

Ukko was walking steadily, a look of fierce determination crossing his face. His eyes were red and puffy, looking as if he had been crying, but it was really because June had insisted on putting two extra coats of wild Pokémon repellent to avoid a rampaging ponyta from crashing into them and, Ukko though, that was enough repellent to halt a whole stampede of them, he sneezed and wiped his nose with his paw. Beside him, the gible was walking without a problem; she stopped to examine his eyes curiously.

"Are you crying?" she said.

Ukko sniffed "No, it's all this repellent"

The gible's eyes widened. "Wow! So I was right the first time!"

"What do you mean, dragon?" growled Ukko.

"I'm not dragon, I'm a gible" said the gible, puffing herself out, but when she saw Ukko's glare she seemed to shrink and decided to talk to the ground. "I-I meant... I was right about you not being a trainer Pokémon..."

"Oh, you think?" said Ukko acidly, pointing to his eyes. He sneezed in disgust and picked up his pace, leaving the gible alone on the path. She squeaked, terrified that a wild Pokémon might jump out at her and bite her to shreds. She quickly ran to Ukko's side. She didn't like him, but at least he could help fend wild Pokémon away.

"Um…" she muttered, picking at a loose scale on her hand. "Why do you like her so much?"

"Who?" Ukko snapped, annoyed that the gible had caught up with him.

"Your… trainer" she said, glancing sideways at Ukko.

"'cause she's my trainer" replied Ukko, then his face took on a completely different expression. "Say, what happened to your trainer?"

A look of hatred crossed the gible's face. "Oh, nothing happened to him… he-"

"AIIIIEEEE!"

"June!" yelled Ukko, then he turned towards the gible. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing!" said the gible, her voice reducing to a squeak. "I'm too far away to bite her!"

"Don't toy with me" said Ukko. "You could have easily thrown a dragon rage attack from here" his ears began fizzing with electricity. "I'm warning you, if you have hurt her…"

"Oow! Owowowowow!" whined June.

"Stop kicking it! It'll just bounce back and hit your leg" scolded Aretha. Ukko sniffed and began to run towards June, but it only took a few sprints for his eyes to burst out in tears, so he retreated, and decided to rely on his ears and teary eyes.

June was rubbing a bright pink patch on her leg beside a battered looking nettle. "Stupid nettle" she said.

"Rub it with a dock leaf, it'll soothe it" said Aretha, shaking her head at all the racket June was making.

"Good idea" she said, she stopped rubbing the sore spot and waved at Ukko. "Ukko! Mind helping me find a dock leaf?"

Ukko nodded, and motioned to the gible. "Hey, gible. We need to find a dock leaf for June's nettle sting, okay?" he flicked his tail at her and dived in a bush, a few rustles later and the gible was beside him.

"Cool, I'm good at finding plants and things that smell" said the gible, she raised her nose as high as she could and took a deep lungful of forest air. "Hmm, I smell one! Its very faint, a little bit far away, but it's there" she pointed at the path. "It's straight on from here"

"…That's… impressive" deadpanned Ukko, he nodded and her and sprinted forward, but slowed down enough for the gible to catch up.

Meanwhile…

June was having a harder time than Ukko finding a dock leaf; she stormed through the thick forest vegetation, cursing the Sinnoh dex for not having a dock plant finder.

"Darn it! There aren't any of those stupid plants anywhere" she grumbled, tapping the Sinnoh dex as if a magical dock plant would materialize in front of her.

"There has to be one around here" said Aretha, peeling a particularly sticky leaf from her hair. "Though I have to admit, this is getting really boring…"

"I know!" said June loudly, making Aretha flinch. "Dock plants are plants, right? And Dancer's kinda like a plant Pokémon, sooooo maybe she has some sort of plant radar!" and before Aretha could protest, June hurled Dancer's Poké ball in the air. Dancer materialized in front of her, giving a little twirl. "Okay Dancer, can you help me find a dock leaf with your plant radar?"

"Byuuuud! Bud!" she said happily. She didn't know what a plant radar was, but she knew what dock leaves were, so, giving a little pirouette, she set off to find one.

"Aha! See, I knew Dancer had a plant radar!" said June, clapping her hands together. Aretha shrugged and followed Dancer with her eyes.

"I've never heard of a 'plant radar'" she said, checking the map. "But okay, I guess if Dancer has it… and your map is going haywire again" she flipped the map towards June, which instead of showing the quiet grassy forest path they were on, showed an underground cave filled with magma and apparently, they had just walked into a gigantic magma whirlpool. "I think this is the inside of stark mountain and… oh, its Snowpoint now" the angry volcanic cave suddenly glazed over with impeccable white snow, with a stone temple near the bottom.

"Ah, leave it" said June. "We have a plant radar now!" she beamed proudly towards her budew, who was performing a wonky ballet routine. Dancer clapped her vines together and started again, but suddenly froze in the middle of a spin. She parted her vines quizzically and stared at the path with a curious expression on her face.

"Wow, what happened to Dancer?" said Aretha. "Why'd she stop?"

June shrugged then walked over to Dancer. "What's wrong Dancer? Did you detect something bad?" getting no response; June stroked the outside of one of her vines worriedly.

Dancer suddenly snapped her vines together and, letting out a high-pitched squeal, rushed forward without any warning.

"Whoa! Wait!" said June running after her. "Where are you go- OW!"

"What, did a nettle sting your other leg?" said Aretha.

"No… my clip got caught on a twig again" June quickly disentangled the clip and put it in her pocket. "Come on, I'm going to lose sight of Dancer soon" June and Aretha ran towards the bud Pokémon who was running and screeching as if her life depended on it. She stopped briefly to scan a wide berry bush in the way then jumped through it, disappearing from June's sight. June and Aretha leaped over the bush and found themselves in a small clearing, where two trainers and their Pokémon stood on either side, a roserade and a farfetch'd.

"Okay roserade" said a blonde girl with a white and blue dress. "Sludge bomb!" a swirling ball of purple goo began expanding on the roserade's hand and, with an elegant flick of her wrist, flung it at the farfetch'd.

A boy wearing a black long sleeve shirt, green shorts and a long red scarf that June recognized as Roxas from the Diamond Cutters Contest grinned and pointed at the sludge bomb. "Whirlwind Zumochi, but careful not to burst it!" Zumochi held his leek in his beak and began fanning air towards the sludge bomb with his wings; halting it in its path and making it hover a few feet above the ground. "Now, hold it there"

"Petal dance!" said the girl. Her roserade began spinning perfectly and spread her arms. Big pink petals began to spin with the roserade like giant confetti and the whole area was filled with a sweet rose smell. June peeled her eyes off the roserade and looked down to Dancer, who seemed frozen on the spot in admiration, her slit-like eyes fixed on the roserade who was dancing like a master ballerina. The roserade stopped and threw her arms forward making the petals fly forward and get caught in the whirlwind.

"Quick Zumochi, leafblade on the sludge bomb" Zumochi twirled the leek in his hand and sliced down on the sludge bomb, leaving a forest green trail of light. The sludge bomb exploded in a thousand purple sparkles and tiny pink petal slivers slowly fluttered down onto the arena.

"Whoo! That was awesome!" said June a little too loudly while Aretha shook her head at her friend embarrassing herself. "Wow, did you see that, Dancer? Wasn't it awesome? Wasn't it?"

"Thanks!" Said Roxas. "Hey, aren't you June from the Diamond Cutters? How've you been?"

"Fine" said June happily. "Seems like Dancer really liked your routine" she said as Dancer hopped around a very puzzled roserade. Then she turned towards the girl "And who are you? I don't remember seeing you at the Diamond Cutters"

"Um… I… wasn't in it" said the girl.

"Oh, what's your name?"

"She's Sakura" said Roxas quickly. "We're forming a tag team in the Springleaf contest in Eterna City"

"Springleaf Contest? …Oh cool, are you guys going to win eggs?"

"Um… no" said Roxas. "They won't give out eggs in this contest, we're just getting medals"

"Aww, well that stinks" said June.

"Hey, you guys still have your eggs, don't you? You know, the ones you won at the Diamond Cutters?"

"Oh yeah" June withdrew from her bag the two eggs. "Aretha said we didn't need to carry them around all the time, since my egg would probably keep both of them warm, besides, we wrapped them up in our coats and spare clothes"

"Oh! Um… May I… see your egg?" said Sakura, her eyes sparkling.

"Oh sure" said June, handing Sakura her red and brown egg.

Sakura stroked the egg shell carefully. "I think I know what Pokémon egg this is, I'm pretty sure this egg is a v-"

"Oh yeah, I've just remembered! Have you guys seen any dock bushes around?" said June. "I er… got a nettle sting on my leg"

"Um, there's one there" said Roxas pointing at the far end where an almost bare dock bush stood. June nodded at Roxas and hurried over to the bush. She plucked the biggest leaf she could find and waved it victoriously. But the wind snatched the leaf from her hands and flew it over her head as if taunting her, then carried it through the forest, nearly disappearing from June's sight.

"NO! that's mine!" screamed June, chasing after the leaf.

"June, get back here…" said Aretha, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just pick another one" but her demand fell on deaf ears as June chased after the leaf. June ran further and further away from the clearing, quickly disappearing from their sight.

"Is she always like this?" said Roxas. Aretha considered the question for a while before answering.

"Not really, I think it's the extra layers of Pokémon repel messing up her brain or something of the like" said Aretha. Roxas nodded as if he understood, while Sakura smiled briefly. "Hm… if you guys don't mind too much, could you please come with me to chase June down? There's safety in numbers… it's ok if you prefer to stay, of course"

"Well… what do you think, Sakura?" said Roxas looking towards Sakura, who nodded. "Ok, we'll go with you" Aretha nodded and the three began making their way towards where June had ran off to.

Meanwhile…

"There it is!" said the gible, pointing towards a scrubby little dock plant which Ukko immediately pounced on. "How many leaves should we… oh" she said as Ukko ripped out a big branch.

"Ok, nawh cah yoh awazhih noewsh lead ush to shoon?" muttered Ukko through a mouthful of twig and leaves.

"Um… did you mean… now can your amazing nose lead us to… June?" said gible.

"Yesh, shoon"

"Sure you can… I-I mean I can" said gible, like before, she stood on the tip of her toes and took a deep sniff. "Mhm… oh, she's really close… and her repel has just worn out… and… Oh no"

"Whah? Whah hahen?"

"She's… oh geez, we have to run now. I'll explain it later" said gible. She pointed towards a dry grass path and the two Pokémon quickly made their way towards the source of the smell.

Meanwhile…

June had been running for a while, never really catching the so sought-after leaf. She jumped for the thirteenth time to catch the leaf. Her fingers managed to barely pinch the edge of the stray leaf but as she fell down to earth she lost footing and she let go of the leaf to stop her fall.

"Come back here leaf!" yelled June as she ran after the leaf. Thinking fast she clambered on top of a rock and managed to grab the leaf while it was still in midair. "Whoo! Victory is mine! Take that, wind!" June hopped down from the rock and began to rub it on her nettle sting. But as she lifted her head she saw something that made her drop her leaf… and her jaw.

"Woooah, I've reached civilization! ...did I wander off that far?" said June. Half hidden by a few evergreen trees was what seemed to be a giant yellow cylinder with odd-shaped gaps in them. June was about to walk forward when a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"June! Stop right there or I swear I'm gonna get Obsie to lock you up in his jaws until we get to Eterna" yelled Aretha, Sakura and Roxas by her side.

"Guys! Guys, look. I've found civilization!" June pointed towards the huge yellow cylinder. "It's... a giant yellow curved wall"

Aretha shook her head. "Can't be, I checked the map… and it was showing the right path, I checked and Eterna is still pretty far away"

"But it should have showed up on the map…"

"It should have… unless…" Aretha scratched her head and walked towards the cylinder. She examined it for a while and when she came back she was grinning. "Hey! Come and look at this, seriously, come" June, Sakura and Roxas looked at each other, then nodded. As they walked forward they realized two things:

The first one was that the wall was way bigger than they had seen, and the second was that the wall was alive.

The 'wall' was in fact a gigantic hive made out of live combees. And they were all asleep, stacked neatly on top of each other. Before realizing what she was doing, June stepped forward and peeked through one of the gaps where a combee must have been sleeping. "Oh my god, guys, look here! It's the queen combee!" the other three leant forward to see. lying on a soft bed made out of piled up petals and dried grass combee's evolution snoozed, snoring quietly.

"That's a vespiquen, June" Said Aretha. "I've never seen one this close up"

"It smells lovely" said Sakura. "Honey and flowers… imagine sleeping on a bed that nice-smelling…"

"Must be amazing to be the head of the hive, all of these combees willing to give their lives for your every whim and desire" said Roxas.

"Shh, we don't want to wake any up" said Aretha in a hushed voice. "They might attack us"

"…Ggiiiiih…"

"What was that?" said June. "Oh no, did the vespiquen wake up?"

"No, but she will if you speak that loudly" hissed Aretha.

"This is important Aretha" said June, her face paling. "What if it's a wild ponyta rampaging? What if it crashes in the hive and the vespiquen and her servants chase us?"

"June…" started Aretha.

"She might have a point, actually" said Roxas. "If a wild Pokémon crashes into the hive we will be in trouble. June, are you sure you heard a Pokémon?"

"Yeah! Sure as pear-flavored poffins are pear-flavoured poffins"

"Where do you think you heard the sound come from?"

"Uh…" June looked nervously around then pointed towards the same path they had come from. "That way"

"Let's send out some Pokémon, in case we have to fight" said Roxas. The rest nodded and called out their Pokémon. Aretha sent out Lazuli, Roxas a breloom, June sent out Moon and Sakura an espeon. The Pokémon and their trainers stood still (Minus Moon who decided to sneak out while June wasn't looking) for a few tense minutes until finally, two small figures popped out off a bush; the gible and Ukko carrying a big leafy branch.

"See, I knew it wasn't anything to worry about" said Aretha crossing her arms and shaking her head while her prinplup imitated her.

"Aww, Ukko. You got those for me?" said June, pulling Ukko into a hug. "Thanks, but I don't need them anymore… that evil gible didn't bite you, did she?"

"June, don't start" said Aretha.

"I was just asking…" said June pouting. "I mean, she's very much into biting, so…"

"Aaah… Ahtishoo!"

"Bless you" said Sakura.

"Hm? Were you talking to me?" Said Aretha.

"Yeah, didn't you sneeze?"

"Nope"

"Who sneezed then?"

"I didn't" said Roxas.

"Neither did I" said June.

"The Pokémon maybe…" Sakura trailed off as the Pokémon shook their heads. "No? then who…" she suddenly stood up straight like she had gotten stung by a combee. Slowly, very slowly her eyes hovered on Ukko, who was still holding the big leafy branch. Her eyes followed the longest branch up to a little leaf perched on the end. As Ukko scratched an itch on his ear the leaf jiggled and she realized that the very tip was brushing against a combee's face. The middle combee's face creased up and began gasping for air.

"… We have to run" said Sakura.

"What?" said June. Ukko turned his head around to face Sakura. As he did, the leaf raked across the combee's face. The combee frowned, took a deep breath and sneezed loudly. He then opened his eyes and, settling on Ukko, began to shake.

"Bee bee bee!" he cried. As he shook, the others around him woke up and began to copy what he was doing. Like a domino effect, soon every combee in the hive was fully awake and glaring at the stunned trainers and Pokémon, who were too shocked to move. The whole hive began hovering, so that it stretched out even further over the tree tops. A sharp, human like command from the inside made the combees nearest to the intruders flinch. Then, they moved elaborately to the sides like a curtain opening and vespiquen floated out, her wings fluttering elegantly and softly. She flew close to the intruders with what June could tell was a disgusted face, peering down at the trainers like a swellow might look at a rattata before swooping down for the kill.

"We're sorry!" said June. "We didn't want to disturb you… your highness…?" June turned towards Aretha, who shrugged. "We'll just leave you and… and not disturb you again… promise!"

"VESS!" said the vespiquen, pointing a two clawed hand towards June. She glared at them for a few minutes until she put her hands on her waist, cocked her head and although June couldn't see any mouth, she was sure she smiled.

"Shh… Shin inx!" said Ukko. Although his tone of voice wasn't particularly aggressive, vespiquen's hands flew to her mouth in shock and the combees around her began whispering excitedly. Even the Pokémon belonging to the other trainers raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"… Way to go, Ukko" said Aretha shaking her head.

"VESP!" yelled the vespiquen to silence Aretha. She clapped her hands and, like a queen ordering a death sentence, raised her arms above her head and swung them down to point at the intruders. The combees behind her began making an angry buzzing noise with their wings and their faces creased up into a murderous snarl. The whole colony raised itself up and, like a tidal wave, folded up on their intruders. Thankfully they seemed to be sensible enough to run before getting caught in an angry swarm.

"OH CRAP!" screamed June as she struggled to keep up with the rest. Already, the mad beating of the combees' wings was making a breeze, whipping up her hair and throwing it in her eyes and mouth. She was scared, even more scared than when she was in the Sandgem forests. At least the scary monster Pokémon she imagined there was only one, as opposed to hundreds and hundreds of bloodthirsty Pokémon with an even stronger one at the head.

"June!" Aretha ran backwards and grabbed June's hand, yanking her forward to catch up with the rest. As they were running, June and the rest noticed that the angry buzzing of the combees was fading away and the breeze stopped, but the trainers and Pokémon kept on running.

"They've… stopped chasing us!" said Sakura. "They must have tired out"

"Ess" said her espeon shaking her head. She walked over to June with an odd expression on her face. June's scalp prickled as she looked in the sun Pokémon's wide violet eyes.

"Human, have you wondered where your shinx would be at this moment?" said a strange feminine voice from nowhere.

June flinchedand looked around. "Whoa! What… who?"

"Ever heard of telepathic Pokémon?" said the voice with a slight chuckle. June immediately looked down and found the espeon smiling up at her.

"Oh! I have, I just didn't expect it" said June. "But anyway, what were you… thinking? It was about Ukko, isn't it?"

"Yes, I'm afraid Ukko has gotten himself into some trouble, he challenged the vespiquen leader"

"No! Oh crap, where is he now? Tell me!" said June.

"Follow" said the espeon. She leaped forward, flicked her forked tail to beckon June, and dove in a bush. Not quite understanding why they should go inside the prickly bushes, June shrugged and dove right after her.

"Oow" June groaned as a thorny branch raked across her face. "Telepathic Pokémon, are you sure they're here?"

"I'm an espeon, but call me Ruby. And no, they are not fighting here" said Ruby. "They are a little further up ahead, and you must keep in the bushes for your own safety"

"Okay, I think I can trust you" said June, crawling army-like on the damp floor to avoid the top spikes from getting caught on her clip. "But how do we know vespiquen won't go in the bushes after me?"

"Simple, the vespiquen leaders are always taking care of their wings with ridiculous worry, diving in the bushes would tear them into ribbons" said Ruby. "Ok, we're here. Look to your right" June obeyed and turned her head.

What she saw shocked her so much her heart skipped a beat. The vespiquen and Ukko were glaring at each other fiercely while the combee minions were spinning around them creating some sort of dome, flying so fast that they were a mere yellow blur around the battlers. The vespiquen eyed Ukko's every movement while Ukko just wanted to glare at the vespiquen as hard as he could.

June turned to Ruby, who was watching the duel expression less "Ruby… how are we going to he-"

"Just watch, interfering now would be fatal mistake" said Ruby, the gem on her head twinkling. June watched as the battlers glared at each other. The vespiquen raised her arm, and in that instant Ukko growled and leapt forward, his mouth open and showing sharp fangs ready to rip the vespiquen to shreds. The vespiquen saw this and flew to the right to dodge but Ukko swerved his head to the right and closed his jaws on one of the vespiquen's wings with a horrible crunch. The vespiquen screamed in pain and flailed around to dislodge Ukko, but he just hung there swinging back and forth. The vespiquen finally gave a shrill command and all of the combee minions surrounding them suddenly tossed themselves upon Ukko.

"Ukko!" screamed June, standing up. "Ruby! Help him! Oh god, he's going to be eaten by some combees!" barely noticing the thorns that dug onto her leg and cutting them, she ran forward towards the big combee mound but an odd force made her freeze where she was.

"Stay still, human. Or this might be your last day on earth" said Ruby. She leaped forward and fired an odd black orb at the big mound of combees from her mouth. The black orb smashed into the mound, knocking out a few combees that fell on the floor unconscious. The whole mound then shuddered; tiny popping lightning bolts ran across the surface and white light shone out from the middle.

"Ruby! It's not working! We need to scare them off" said June her body still frozen by the energy. "What are combees scared of?"

"Mainly fire or strong flying types" said Ruby tilting her head to glare at the mound. "But I don't have any moves of either type"

"But then… who?" said June. "Can you release me please? I think I can make some fire with these branches"

Ruby's gem twinkled and the strange force released June's body, but Ruby shook her head "Impossible, the branches are too damp, the whole weather is too damp" said Ruby. "There's going to be rain later"

"But… what's gonna happen to… I HAVE AN IDEA!" screamed June, making Ruby flinch. "Ruby, could you call a little gible through telekinesis? She can use a fire-type attack"

"I can do something better" said Ruby with a small smile. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and made the scarlet gem on her forehead twinkle. The tip of her forked tail twitched with concentration as she made the jewel on her head shine as brightly as she could.

Something twinkled in the distance, catching June's eye. June turned her head to see what it was but she didn't see anything apart from trees and a few flowers… and what looked like a very shiny blue kite in the distance.

June frowned. She could swear that the kite was getting bigger, and that the edges were glowing purple… maybe someone overdid the purple glitter on the edges? It looked like it was coming closer…some careless kid must have let go of the string, but as June reflected on this, there didn't seem to be any wind…

"Ruby… where is the gible? Are you sure she's coming?" said June. Ruby didn't reply, instead twitching her forked tail towards the kite. Wow! There had really been a lot of work on this kite! June could see fake eyes and white triangles and a big red splodge in the middle. It even looked as if it were a real… gible? June realized that the Pokémon-shaped kite was actually a Pokémon-shaped Pokémon. A gible! And not just any gible, the gible. "Giiiiiible! Giiiible!" said June, waving her arms. "Fly over here! Faster! Fly over here!... Okay, you can stop now… Stop! Your going t-Oof"

The gible crashed on June's stomach, knocking the air out of her. She feebly nudged the gible off her as she just sat there gasping like a magikarp. Ruby opened her eyes and waved her tail at June apologetically, while the gible just curled up into a little scaly blue ball and just shivered in shock where she lay.

"Giih… ble! Fire… the… combees!" wheezed June. The gible just tilted her head at June. She tried again "Gib-ble! Fire on the combees! Please" the gible scratched the top of her head and looked over to Ruby, who shrugged. "Ruby, could you tell this gible to use fire on the combees please?"

Ruby nodded and turned to the gible. "Ess, espeon" she said in what June guessed was a reassuring tone. The gible looked genuinely confused and uttered out a small "Giible". Ruby turned to June. "You seem to be mistaken, this gible here has no memory of ever having a fire-type move"

"Don't lie!" yelled June. "I know you have one! You used it last night! That purply-yellow fire bolt!" June looked down at her shoes, then looked up, her eyes filling up with tears. "I know I've… me and Ukko have been treating you badly, and I'm sorry, and I bet Ukko's sorry too. It's just that I was scared of you biting me and Ukko's really wild and protective and… and please just help him, please… he might die under there" June sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve.

"Giih…ble?" said the gible, tilting her head as she looked at June with concern. She tapped her chin with the tip of her claws as she digested the information June had provided… then it suddenly hit her. June must have been talking about dragon rage! She gave June one of her most reassuring smiles she could muster and took a deep breath, puffing herself to almost twice her size. When June was sure that the gible would pop like a balloon, she opened her mouth and spat out a huge dragon rage attack, one of the biggest ones the gible could make. The dragon rage sped furiously towards the mound and crashed right into the middle, purple bolts spreading and crackling over the yellow bodies. The combees screamed in shock as another dragon rage attack headed their way, they quickly picked themselves off their hill and flew off while squealing angrily, but a few combees were still piled up.

June dashed over to the hill and found that the remaining combees were all paralyzed, hardly able to twitch their wings in response. She shoved a few apart and found a lock of black hair. "Ruby! I found him! Could you lift him up with your psi power?"

"Sure" the gem on Ruby's head glowed purple as a figure rose from the motionless combees, revealing an unconscious luxio, his face frozen in a snarl.

"...Ukko evolved! Amazi- whats that on his leg?" something black and red was gripping his left leg. Ruby lifted him up more to show a yellow torso attached to it. "Vespiquen still has him! I can't believe she doesn't give up even when she's paralyzed" June ran over to them and prised the clawed arm off his leg. "Ruby, please drop him onto my back, I think I can bear his... new weight" June said, although she sounded doubtful. Slowly, Ukko's body hovered above June as if an invisible was pulling him, then the rope broke.

June's body crashed to the ground as the sheer weight of Ukko pinned her to the ground. "Ugh... help... no, I can do this!" June shifted herself so that Ukko's head lolled on top of her head and both of his paws hung loosely on her shoulders. Gazing determinately at the motionless vespiquen arm, she slowly got up, but before she was even halfway to standing up her knees buckled and she fell forward. "Okay Ruby, could you lift him up with your psi powers so he's lighter?" almost immediately, the invisible rope pulled upward and June was able to stand up and carry him as easily as if she were carrying a big balloon. "Whew! Thanks! Come on, let's go" June walked onwards though the path alongside the one that they had come from, motioning for the Pokémon to follow her. Ruby soon caught up with June, carrying the gible on her back.

"I'm a little disappointed actually" said the espeon flicking her tail in annoyance. "I was looking forward to battling the vespiquen leader"

"You'd have to deal with the whole hive then" pointed out June. "They value their leader too much to let you come close to her"

"Mmm... I think you're right... we'd better run, I can see the combee's paralysis fading away"

"Wha...? right now?"

"No, but we'd better pick up our pace" said the espeon, running ahead of June.

"Okay!" said June cheerfully, she stroked the big paw by her cheek and ran along with her.

Later...

"Hi guys!" said June, waving at them.

"June, what happened there? seriously" said Aretha, giving June a hard look. "Why'd you run off towards the hive... and what happened to you? You look like you've been dragged through a barbed wire"

"Actually, it was a thorny bush" said June, she looked down at her clothes. There were small rips and cuts on her skirt and shirt, and her hair looked as if it were electrified. "I had to save Ukko, and look, he evolved!"

"I can see that..." said Aretha with a sniff. "I was so worried, especially when gible started hovering and flew out of here randomly"

"Oh that... we needed back up... sorta. But there's no time for that, we need to run, which way shall we go?"

Aretha took out the Sinnoh Dex "Hm... seems that all that crazy running we did earlier got us really close to Eterna! We just need to cross over this giant ice tornado, then we'll be there..."

"I hate it when it does that"

"Yeah, me too..." said Aretha. "But apart from that, everything else seems to be normal"

"Guys... we'd better get our Pokémon ready for battle" said Sakura in a small voice, her espeon curling herself around Sakura's ankles. "Ruby just told me that the vespiquen and her cronies are coming over, fast"

"All of the combees?" asked Aretha with a worried look on her face.

"No, just six" replied Sakura.

"Good, we can beat them" said Roxas. "I think we can beat them with our Pokémon alone, but just in case..." Roxas withdrew a Poké ball and released a flareon June recognised as Rimochi from the Diamond cutters contest. June laid down Ukko and released Dancer, who chirruped happily at being out of her Poké ball.

All of the trainers and Pokémon gazed expectedly at the path June had come from, where a steady buzzing sound was coming from, getting louder by the minute. After a few minutes of waiting the vespiquen came out, her hurt wing shuddering pathetically while her other one was reduced to a faint silver flur from the effort of keeping her airborne, behind her, five combees were buzzing around angrily while the sixth one flitted around vespiquen's wing trying to heal it. The vespiquen's red eyes flitted angrily towards, Ukko, who was still knocked out on the grass, then to Sakura, then June. The vespiquen raised an arm as though getting ready to throw something and...

"Rimochi! Flamethrower, Kashirin, jump and use focus punch!" before vespiquen could finish her attack, Rimochi released a towering stream of fire while at three combees while Kashirin leaped into the air with one of her fists cloaked in whitish light, smashing it in the middle of the vespiquen's horned head. The vespiquen hovered around drunkenly and tried to raise her arm again, but June saw it coming.

"Absorb then top it off with stun spore!" yelled June. As Dancer positioned herself to absorb the vespiquen's health, the vespiquen screeched and threw a small ball of yellow glittering light at Dancer, hitting her squarely in the chest, meanwhile, Aretha commanded Lazuli to peck an unsuspecting combee while Ruby threw shadow balls around happily. The vespiquen hissed and flew over to Ruby, raising her clawed arms above her head and swinging them down on Ruby's body, her claws digging into her violet fur.

"Ruby, signal beam!" screeched Sakura. Ruby growled at the vespiquen and fired a rainbow coloured beam from her jewel into the vespiquen's face. While the vespiquen shielded her eyes Ruby fired a second signal beam at one of her cronies, who dropped to the floor unconscious.

"Metal claw on the vespiquen!" yelled Aretha. Lazuli ran up to the vespiquen, who was still rubbing her eyes, and struck her across the face with a glowing fin. The vespiquen shuddered and raised her arm to strike Lazuli, but her hand closed, her eyes shut and she dropped on the floor. The three remaining combees quickly began hovering around their fallen leader frantically, but a quick flamethrower from Rimochi soon sent them flying off.

"Hmm, so much for loyalty" said Roxas recalling his Pokémon.

"Well, it was either that or getting barbecued" pointed out June. "I'm just glad that that mean vespiquen is down" June looked over to Ukko, who was just recovering from fainting. June knelt down and stroked him. "Ukko! Look, you evolved!"

"Lu…Luuu?" mumbled Ukko as he looked in wonder at himself, his gaze drifted ffrom himself, to June and to the unconscious vespiquen lying on the floor. Immediately Ukko sprang to his feet and growled at her, his ears fizzing with electricity.

"No! Ukko, no. leave her, she's already unconscious" said June. "But she did put up a fight, when we pulled you out of that combee hill, she was still hanging onto you!" Ukko frowned but shook his head and nudged June with his paws, convinced that June was lying.

"Yeah… so, anyone want to go to Eterna?" said Aretha, showing them the map. "It's just along this dusty road, then we go south and the entrance should be there"

"Awesome!" yelled Roxas.

"Uh…Aretha?" said June. "I got a nettle sting on my ank-"

"Shut up, June" said Aretha pinching the bridge of her nose. "Please, just… shut up"

A/N: Reviews greatly appreciated.