Welcome to the Golden Hive

...The world seems to come back through the numbness of darkness. The sensation of weight bobbing about comes first to you. Wetness...stickiness...something was coating your body; more than just your chest. Your arms. Your legs. You try to move them. But nothing but pressure meets your resistance. Even when you try to inhale more, your chest barely has space to inflate. You groan, feeling your throat a bit dry, but an incredibly sweet smell reaches your nose. Honey. The natural sweetness floods your nostrils to almost reignite some life in you. Flicking your ear, the sound of voices muffledly hits your ear drum. With the notion of your ears, that meant your head was free.

Next, you work on your eyes. The eyelids struggle at first, but you lift them enough to earn a blurry view of...oddly enough...golden hues. Hexagonal patterns occasionally hit your vision in between the pulses of bleariness; it was a pattern or biome you were unfamiliar with. Your last conscious memory was hard to ascertain because of the grogginess dwindling both your mind and your strength, but you do recall you shouldn't be here. "...U-Ugnnh...nnh..." You cannot help but groan in your stir of waking up. You attempt to speak, knowing there should at least be someone with you. "...Jah...Jackal...?"

You do get a response, but not of a voice you recognize. In fact, they sounded female. "Hm? Tch, Glimmer, your powder mustn't be potent today. The mutt is already waking up too."

"...Perhaps the adrenaline rush of their fight caused it a lesser effect of when they were coated." Another foreign voice states, male from the sound of it.

A third voice speaks out, also perhaps male in tone. "Yeah, shove it Niva! Listen to what Razz said. Besides, it ain't like you did anything to help."

Glimmer. Razz. Niva. None of these names can be recollected in your mind. You spend a moment in your delirious state to try and think back on what you recall.

It was difficult to get a look at anyone around you as you stare at a wall...or perhaps even a ceiling, as it seems to shift in place and constantly move. It took a moment, but you gather enough reason to suspect that the wall surface isn't moving, but in fact, you were the one moving. You were being carried. It was still odd that you couldn't really move, but you're still too busy trying to remember things now. One of these odd voices mentioned a powder, and like it was the hint you needed, you remember watching a pale mist collect on you and your two companions...after a battle for survival no less with some kind of infected; that's right, it was an Aurorus. Then...

Your eyes flare open now. The pupils shrink as you welcome in more light to them, snapping out of some stupor you were in now that you realized there could be danger. Like an animal instinct, you dart your head and ears around, finding your vision coming back for the most part. "Wh---huh?!"

Sure enough, you were being carried. You were elevated from the ground, and looking down along yourself, you were encased up to your neck in some kind of yellow, glossy chitin. The sweet scent hitting your nose and how transparent the material was, it hints to you that it was weirdly some kind of hardened honey. Your limbs are left pinned in place, frozen similar to how you were in ice from that Aurorus, but far more effectively this time. A couple of hands kept your stiff and trapped body on the shoulder of a Ledian; the anthro ladybug simply adjusts her grip to you, twitching an annoyed antenna.

She was shorter than you in height, if you had the capability to even stand as you're held like a log longways across her single shoulder, and her eyes were a vivid and full blue. Not infected, but your captor nonetheless. You muster the strength to groan out, "Where am I? Who are you?"

The Ledian does not answer you, leaving you to glance around freely in hopes of answers. All about were cavernous walls, occasionally broken up by big open honeycomb sections or papery nest dens the size of a hut. No sky could be seen as the cavernous walls surround the space. But glimmering stones, bioluminescent mushrooms, and golden gleaming honey keep the place alight in a yellowish hue as you're taken deep into this unknown hive. Ahead of you when looking down along your encased body, you see a few more individuals.

Two people lead the group; both of their backs facing you as they each had one of your companions slung on their shoulder or carried in arms. Jackal and Gold were encased in the same golden honey shell that was up to their necks, leaving their heads free to sag a bit. The Golduck looked entirely out of it, but Jackal had his mouth hanging open, idly drooling a bit with an occasional groan or bleary-eyed expression. The big Typhlosion was being carried by curvy purple and blue butterfly of all things; a soft Butterfree with elegant back wings with a purple light fuzz to their figure that transition into a light blue to his forearms and legs. He turns a bit to make eye contact with you; full, gleaming red eyes that just have a look of mundane annoyance. The Butterfree speaks aloud, "Great, Niva, can you shut him up? I don't wanna hear the same ol' complainin' or questionin' from him."

"Maybe you should'a coated these losers better then, huh?" The Ledian, Niva, retorts right back quite rudely. "Besides, we're nearly there Glimmer. We'll just drop 'em off for the queen and that'll be that."

Glimmer, the Butterfree, scowls towards the Ledian as he just lugs Jackal in his arms, annoyed a bit more now but he proceeds forward down this hive hall nonetheless.

"What's going on...? Where are you taking us?!"

"Quiet." The person to his left holding Gold was a Beedrill.

The hornet was sleek but had a tougher-looking build than the Butterfree certainly did. Yellow and black hide smoothly decorates him as he kept a completely sturdy composure to himself. His stinger abdomen bobs a bit behind him like a fat round tail while his back wings occasionally giving a buzzing motion; likely in agitation towards you. Though what couldn't be denied was the wider hips when glancing at his waistline. Doughy yellow cheeks bob just under that stinger of his, leading to taut thighs that transition back to that black exoskeleton sleekness from the knees down, similar to his arms. The Beedrill's red eyes gleam over to you from his shoulder. Razz, from what you presume now to be the last stranger, firmly states from your wandering eyes of him, "You are prisoners. Unless you wish to have your mouth sealed shut as well, I suggest you keep your voice as worldless as you were."

The Golduck he carries was still just as ****, and Jackal didn't seem to really register your voice at all. He was barely considered awake with how powdered his head still looked. As much as you wanted to bark his name or threaten these people, simply being unable to budge was a good enough recommendation to heed the Beedrill's advice for now. You still wanted to know more about this Razz and company, but now wasn't the time to push your luck. You still had to recover from the fight with the Aurorus and ward off the sluggishness you feel from the Butterfree's sleep powder.

The trio of the bug Pokemon 'escort' you and your friends down to the end of the hall where two more bug Pokemon guards await. A Scyther and a Scizor from what you can glance at. They recognize the group and proceed to step out of the way of two big hive doors. Razz speaks out, "...Actually, perhaps it is best not to overwhelm the Queen with too many at once. I will take this one into the cells for later use; you can take these two to be presented to the Queen. Our Highness never has more than two at once after all."

Niva huffs, the Ledian wincing you on her shoulder, "Huh? I mean hey, I'd be happy to not have to lug this guy around anymore, but are ya sure? The duck looks like a short squirt."

Glimmer however grunts right back, "You're a little squirt. But I think with how big and tubby this fuck is, he more than makes up for it. C'mon, just trade out with Razz, unless you want a turn holding this drooly chubster."

The Ledian doesn't refute that, and you feel yourself getting passed over, exchanged into Razz's hands while Gold is handed off to Niva. You grunt in disapproval, still uncertain as to what this was all for, but you were being given a chance to learn more at least. Razz notes, "Good. Take these two away to be prepped. I will fetch for this one if the royal Highness still requires more."

Razz then parts his way from the duo, leaving you to stare at Gold and Jackal being taken inside the two large double-doors with something nefarious to be done with them. You could assume what they, and to an extent even you, were meant for...but you had to confirm things, "...You keep mentioning this queen of yours. What does she want with people like us? We're not infected."

"Clearly." The Beedrill answers bluntly, keeping you stiffly on his shoulder. "That is for Her to decide. What the Queen requests, I help grant. But your requests? I do not need to answer to. Should I perhaps remind you of that voice of yours? Silence." He gives an angry buzz of his wings as the bee abdomen flexes up, revealing its sharp stinger. "I will not be as gentle to put you to sleep, pup. We do not need you alive. Just whole, to the Royal Queen's preferences."

Again, you have to bite your tongue against your first impulse. Getting killed wouldn't do you or your friends any favors, but you felt as though you were on a clock now. It would be only so long until this 'Queen' of theirs collected Gold and Jackal, and you had a gut feeling they were going to be...well...a royal dinner. Whatever you could do, it would have to wait until you weren't kept in such a precarious position, or were left alone. Like the Aurorus' ice, you consider being able to melt the honey with enough aura heat. Perhaps these bugs aren't aware of Lucarios or their unique abilities. But again, you would have to be alone as the black exoskeleton arms haul you away on the Beedrill's shoulder...

The entire area seemed to be an underground hive, or within some Pokemon-made complex of clay, honeycomb, and the nesting huts you occasionally pass by embedded in the walls. However the cells worked here, you just hoped you didn't get eyes on you for a bit. To think you defeated a feral, only to be taken by a hungry clan of exclusively bug Pokemon...

Jackal has left your party...
Gold has left your party...