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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Somehow, the incredibly transparent acting made Ceri's mischievous intentions feel all the more mischievous. Isaac snickered, shaking his head as she exaggerated each and every word. "You're right, you're right," Isaac said, his own tone slipping to match hers. "How could I ever accuse such a serious and ethically-sound scientist of something like that? How thoughtless of me!"

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He'd really be thoughtless when the swarm of bees that Ceri was working her butt off to summon got in motion. 90% of his head would be "shit, run," and the remaining 10% would be finding the best time to shout "not the bees!" Not exactly the best use of brainspace for sciencing, but let's be real. He wasn't Ceri's research assistant for his smarts.

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The sweeet scent made his head spin. It was like someone had broken into a perfume aisle and smashed his face into every free sample available. He tucked his mouth and nose into the crook of his arm and tried his damn best not to sneeze. The good news: the wind helped!

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The bad news. The wind helped. Like, a lot.

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"Jeez, are you trying to ring up the whole damn forest?" Isaac asked, watching as clouds of pink vapor drifted in each and every direction. Crobat were impressively fast Pokemon, capable of beating their wings more time per hour than anything short of a Ninjask. And all that beating was scattering pollen and sweet perfumes further than Isaac had ever seen before. And the buzzing? Oh, it was coming from everywhere.

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Still. His orders were clear. Don't run. "You totally owe me a drink after this," Isaac said to Ceri, flashing her a weary smile, before turning to see where the first bees would approach. "Bee-ring it on!" he shouted towards the treeline.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Cool! You're buying me one for each time I get stung!" Isaac said, waiting until the buzzing was just too loud for any of Ceri's protests to be heard. Clever boy.[break][break]

And just like that, Isaac was gone, lost in a thick shroud of bee bodies and a single flash of light. The Combees bodies were interlocked to such a degree that they nearly formed a perfect sphere around Isaac. Luckily, all of their booties were sticking out; at least Isaac only had to deal with Bug Bites today and not anything worse. But was he okay in there?[break][break]

A Combee sailing over Ceri's head answered that question![break][break]

Isaac had, indeed, let Kiryu out just in time. The Aggron was clutching great stones in her fists, but opted to use them as bludgeons directly instead of trying to snare any bees in a Rock Tomb. Her strikes were slow and ponderous, but against such a dense mob of bees it would've been nearly impossible not to score some hits. In turn, the weak Bug Bites practically bounced off of her iron hide. Any occasional yelp of pain from Isaac was promptly met with another Combee flying halfway across the clearing. Ot was clear Kiryu was more focused on guarding Isaac than on wanton destruction.[break][break]

Better still, her violence punched enough holes in the bee-ricade for Ceri to get an inside look.[break][break]

While the outer layer formed a reinforced dome around their quarry, the inner mass was a much less organized swarm. They flew around Isaac and Kiryu in great numbers, charging forward with little regard to their own safety or even the efficacy of their attacks. Any hits on Isaac were more blind luck than any coordinated strategy. Even the dome, a tried and true Combee swarm strategy, seemed less healthy than usual. It was at maybe half the thickness it should have been, and Combee were constantly peelimg off of it to join the fray against Kiryu. Was it because they weren't succeeding with their current strategy? Or was something giving these bees so much aggression that they were fighting their very instincts?[break][break]

Regardless, Isaac was doing his best to hang in there. There were some rips in his jacket and pants, many scratches on his helmet, and the occasional noticeable welt or hive, but he was still standing, damnit! Hell, even as he kept under Kiryu's bulky body, he still grabbed shattered fragments of rocks and flung them at the Combee to help stave them off. What a trooper.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Uh, hey, Kiryu?" Isaac asked, shooting his Aggron a puzzled look. The two were knee-deep in bees now. The outer sphere had practically collapsed by now, leaving Isaac's vision completely blotted out by masses of buzzing bodies. Something must have happened on the outside to set these bees off, leaving Kiryu and Isaac in full offense mode.[break][break]

And yet, despite this, Isaac could see light. "Is it just me, or did someone turn the sun back on?" There was a strange addition to the droning, and he could almost make words nestled within it. Wait. Did bees always sound so Galarian?[break][break]

Oh, shit.[break][break]

Isaac realized what was going on just in time, furiously fumbling through his pockets for a certain Pokeball. Come on, come on! Where the heck was Duster? He searched in a frantic dazed, before finally grabbing a ball that seemed right and flinging it to the ground. Aa he did so, Kiryu wheeled around, grabbed him tight, and braced for impact.[break][break]

The world went bright white, and then pitch black. The smell of ozone tickled Isaac's nose. And, most importantly, the sound of buzzing seemed to be drawing further away.[break][break]

As Isaac opened his eyes, he could see a mass of Combee dazed on the ground before him. Their compatriots had abandoned them, another strange departure from their hive mind instinct. His own hair was standing on end as if he was a super saiyan, and he was paler than a ghost. But for now? At least he was safe. Kiryu slowly released her hold on him, and a nonplussed Duster looked at him with a charred black bone in his grasp.[break][break]

"Heh. Y'know, when you feel like being a big damn hero, you sure know how to make an entrance," Isaac admitted, heading over to where Ceri was standing. There was still a buzzing ringing through his ears, but he ignored it. It was probably just the lightning strike being burned into his senses. "Learn anything cool? Or am I just showing up on Hoenn's Funniest Home Videos this week?" [break][break]

Maybe Ceri would notice Kiryu tilting her head in confusion, pointing towards Isaac. Maybe she would notice Duster facepalming in exasperation. Maybe she, too, would notice the uneven, strained buzzing.[break][break]

Oe maybe she would notice the Combee sticking out of Isaac's back, trying, and failing, to detach its stinger from his jacket.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Yeah, it was no wonder that Ceri needed to pick through the mass of Combee. A bunch of the ones closer to the outer layer smelled downright Orreian fried, having taken the brunt of the blow for their compatriots. However, even some of the ones by Isaac were rather unresponsive. Suddenly, he felt really glad that he sent Duster out before the earth-shattering kaboom. Things could've been even more painful otherwise.

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And luckily, painful was all Isaac escaped with for the most part. He popped his helmet off, his face fortunately untouched. "So you're telling me something's literally set these bees into rage mode, to the point where they're not even themselves anymore," he said. "They did seem, like. Really weirdly aggressive. Hell, it almost seemed like they were hunting. Usually they're not like that unless someone karate chops their hive in half." Not that Isaac would know.

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At least it seemed like Ceri had an opportunity to do further research. This was the part where Isaac could skip town, unless he really wanted to be a test tube holder or a coat rack. Better to let Ceri do Ceri things, and then get woken up at 3 AM to either quasi-related memes or a bunch of technobabble texts about Combee gallbladder inflammation. With her it was a coinflip.

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At her little snort of laughter, Isaac cocked an eyebrow. "Wait, what're y- ah, whatever," he said, waving off the thought. Honestly, Ceri found the weirdest things funny sometimes. She just got finished doting over a giant salamander who might as well have been named Biohazard, after all. If she was going to giggle about the bee graveyards of Route 119, he was probably better off not knowing why. " 'Sides, you're right. It's time for us to blow this joint."

[break][break]

And with that, Isaac walked off, giving Ceri a perfect view of the Combee dangling from his jacket. A researcher's job was never done!

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