After thorough investigation, Keith quickly identified the skills the Caterpie had developed. Once Valerie finished recording the essential information, he had Fletchinder defeat and capture it.
Following the Caterpie, Pidove located a Paras, and Fletchinder discovered a Beedrill. Cole's team applied the same capture method to both Pokémon with remarkable efficiency.
As they continued, the four teammates began to work together more seamlessly, significantly improving their performance.
Within just an hour, they had successfully captured 30 Pokémon.
Their impressive efficiency — powered by two Flying-type Pokémon and Cole's Psychic abilities — positioned their team near the top of the rankings.
Cole's Psychic powers were particularly valuable, allowing him to detect Bug-type Pokémon every few steps like a living radar.
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Meanwhile, Lucas's team faced serious problems. No one would cooperate with anyone else, severely hampering their ability to find Pokémon. Not a single team member even volunteered to record information about their captures.
Their performance ranked near the bottom of all teams. Though not yet in last place, they would quickly fall there if other teams made even modest improvements.
Lucas was proud by nature. While stubborn, he certainly didn't enjoy losing — in fact, winning mattered greatly to him.
"Since none of you will cooperate, I'll work alone. You're all on your own now!" Lucas announced harshly, frustrated by his teammates' attitudes.
One of the alternative-styled girls responded with contempt, "Go ahead and work alone — who wants to be with you guys anyway?"
And so, fueled by their anger, the five team members went their separate ways.
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After Cole's team captured a Heracross, they suddenly heard a buzzing sound. Two girls and a boy emerged from a patch of grass, screaming in terror.
"Ahhh, help!"
"Run! Find water, quickly!"
"Waaah... my face! My face!"
Behind them swarmed about twenty angry Beedrill.
The trio had encountered Beedrill — notorious forest bullies. Once these Pokémon target someone, it becomes a life-or-death situation.
Seeing this, Cole quickly released Bayleef from its Poké Ball, "Bayleef, Sweet Scent!"
"Bay~"
A hazy pink mist emanated from Bayleef's body, drifting toward the swarm. Within moments, the Beedrill became disoriented, swaying in the air as if intoxicated.
The fragrance from Bayleef's body had an irresistible effect on Pokémon like Beedrill!
"Pidove! Keith, attack!"
At Cole's command, Pidove and Keith's Fletchinder launched into action. They quickly defeated and captured over twenty Beedrill.
Having defeated so many Pokémon at once, Cole's team didn't even have time to record their basic information.
"Whew~ we're saved!" The boy sighed in relief before wincing, "Ouch! It hurts so much!"
He drew in another sharp breath as pain shot through his face, which was now red and swollen from the Beedrill stings.
The two girls were in similar condition, their faces so swollen that their features were barely recognizable.
Despite their swollen faces, the girls remained distinctly different: one tall with long brown hair wearing a green dress, the other short with black hair in a green kimono.
"Ouch~ waaah... I'm disfigured!" The shorter girl touched her face gingerly, then crouched down and began sobbing.
The boy, wincing in pain, said, "You're crying? We got stung because of you!"
When they encountered the Beedrill swarm, they had initially planned to defeat them one by one. Unexpectedly, the shorter girl suddenly released Gloom, and its smell instantly attracted all the Beedrill's attention.
So much for defeating them one by one!
Although Gloom's scent seems disgusting and unpleasant to humans, it's actually a synthetic fragrance — it only smells bad because of its intensity.
For Beedrill, this unique fragrance is extremely attractive because it's essentially the scent of nectar.
"Waaah!!!" Hearing this, the shorter girl cried even harder, "I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Come on, you two, stop arguing!"
The taller girl scolded them, then approached Cole and his team with her swollen red face to thank them.
"Thank you for helping us! By the way, I'm Daisy, this is Erika, and that's Junichi."
Valerie whispered in Cole's ear, "Daisy is Professor Oak's granddaughter, Erika is the Celadon Gym Leader's granddaughter, and Junichi is Elite Four Agatha's junior."
{T/N: Junichi is an OC, at least for what I searched.}
During the two days Cole was away, Valerie had gathered quite a bit of information about the Junior Division students.
Cole was surprised; he hadn't realized that Professor Oak's granddaughter and the future Celadon Gym Leader were participating in this summer camp. He hadn't noticed them before.
"Hello." Cole and his team greeted Daisy and the others. Seeing that Erika was still quietly sobbing, he said, "Why don't I help treat you? You all seem to be in a lot of pain."
"Really?" Hearing this, Erika stood up immediately, looking at him with expectation.
Cole took out three Pecha Berries from his backpack and gave them to the trio, "Pecha Berries can detoxify — the swelling on your faces is mainly from poisoning."
They quickly ate the berries. As the toxins cleared, the swelling on their faces reduced by half, and the painful itching gradually subsided.
Junichi touched his face and exclaimed, "It's not swollen anymore, and it doesn't hurt!"
Daisy looked gratefully at Cole, "Thank you! By the way, I don't know your names yet."
"My name is Cole, and beside me are Valerie, Keith, and Daniel." He replied.
Hearing this, Daisy widened her eyes in surprise, "So you're Cole? My grandfather has mentioned you before — he said you're very talented!"
"Really? Really?" Junichi rushed over, "Let me take a good look at someone even Professor Oak praises."
Cole hadn't expected Professor Oak to praise him privately, so he could only respond modestly.
By then, Erika had finally stopped crying and approached to thank him and the others.
Cole looked at her for a moment, "Actually, if you had a Grass-type Pokémon, Aromatherapy could have detoxified you too."
Erika was a Grass-type Pokémon trainer.
Hearing this, Daisy and Junichi both turned to stare at her simultaneously.
Erika, frightened by her companions' "terrifying" stares, stepped back and explained with a pained expression, "I thought I was disfigured just now. I was too upset, so I didn't... didn't think of it."
Daisy: ...
Junichi: ...
After chatting with them for a while, Cole and his team prepared to leave. After all, they still had a mission to complete.
"Erika, we're leaving!" Daisy called out loudly, seeing Erika huddled next to Cole's Bayleef, whispering something to it.
Suddenly, Bayleef's body trembled, and several leaves immediately fell from its neck.
"Coming! Coming!" Erika quickly gathered the fallen leaves and tucked them into her pocket, then hugged Bayleef's neck and gave it a big kiss, "Thank you, Bayleef! If you ever come to Celadon, I'll definitely treat you well."
It turned out that this girl had another hobby — developing perfumes. After smelling Bayleef's unique fragrance, she had been suddenly inspired, believing she could create a distinctive perfume using materials from it.
That explained the scene they had just witnessed.
Despite evolving, Bayleef hadn't broken its habit from its Chikorita days of giving leaves to new friends. So when Erika asked for some, it happily obliged.
After Erika and her friends left, Cole looked helplessly at Bayleef's now half-bare neck and patted its head, "You're still the same as always. Don't drop your leaves every time you meet someone!"
Before, it would drop just one leaf at a time, but now they fell in clumps. Had it grown too many leaves and become wealthy or something?
"Bay~ Bay~"
Bayleef grinned foolishly, then used Photosynthesis to instantly regrow the leaves on its neck.
Valerie then asked, "What should we do about recording information for the Beedrill we just caught?"
Cole thought for a moment, "Let me try something. Give me one of the Beedrill."
Valerie nodded, took out a Poké Ball containing a Beedrill, and handed it to him.
Cole released the Beedrill from its Poké Ball.
The Beedrill, having already regained consciousness from its minor injuries, immediately raised its stinger upon seeing Cole and lunged toward his head without hesitation.
"Cole, watch out!"
The three others quickly warned him.
But Cole remained calm. Just as the Beedrill was about to strike, his eyes flashed with purple light, and the Beedrill froze in mid-air, unable to move.
Since inheriting Psychic Power from Ceci and Garvo, he had become comparable to a humanoid Psychic-type Pokémon. Most ordinary Pokémon could only submit before him.
The Beedrill struggled desperately, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't break free from the Psychic restraint.
The purple light in Cole's eyes began to slowly rotate, transforming into two deep, captivating purple vortices that drew others in with an almost magnetic pull, inviting them to explore their depths.
The moment the Beedrill made eye contact with Cole, its focus was completely captivated, and it stopped struggling entirely.
"Beedrill, can you show me what moves you know?" Cole asked in an enticing voice close to the Beedrill's ear.
He then released his Psychic hold on the Pokémon.
"Bzzzz~"
The Beedrill obediently nodded, then flew to a nearby tree and launched an attack.
It crossed its arms, which emitted a dazzling white light, and slashed violently at the trunk, instantly carving two deep grooves into the thick wood.
"Very good, that's Twineedle!"
Valerie stood stunned until Cole gave her a prompting look, reminding her to record the information.
Next, the Beedrill rapidly swung its arms, striking the tree trunk with its sharp stingers and quickly creating multiple fist-sized dents.
"Excellent, that's Fury Attack!"
Hearing this, Valerie quickly noted it down.
Under Cole's Psychic guidance, the Beedrill demonstrated all of its moves in sequence.
"The last move is Focus Energy. Well done, Beedrill."
Cole continued praising the Beedrill, keeping its mood calm until it suddenly broke free from the mental hypnosis.
After that, he returned the Beedrill to its Poké Ball, walked to the tree trunk for a look, and then told Valerie, "Its ability is Sniper!"
Beedrill as a species only had two abilities: the regular ability Swarm and the hidden ability Sniper.
Swarm increased Bug-type moves' power by 50% when a Pokémon's HP dropped below one-third, similar to the Blaze ability of Fire-types, Overgrow of Grass-types, and Torrent of Water-types.
Sniper enhanced critical hits, making them deal even more damage than normal critical hits.
From the Beedrill's performance just now, its ability was clearly Sniper.
"Cole, I feel like your Psychic Powers have gotten even stronger — you can even hypnotize Pokémon now!" Valerie looked at him with admiration.
"They have improved a bit. Let's continue. We need to finish recording the Beedrill's information and look for more Pokémon. We don't have much time left!"
"Quick, quick, quick!" Daniel exclaimed excitedly, "Later we can find clusters of Pokémon and use this method! First place is definitely ours, right?"
He rubbed his hands together as he spoke.
"You think you're so clever. You think clustered Pokémon are that easy to find?" Valerie replied exasperatedly.
Soon, Cole had used hypnosis to record information for more than twenty Pokémon.
"All right, let's hurry and find more Pokémon!" Cole suddenly stopped everyone, "I have an idea, though I'm not sure if it will work. If it does, I hope everyone can cooperate with me. We might really get first place today."
"What's your idea? Tell us quickly!" Daniel's eyes lit up. He knew Cole was reliable and wouldn't suggest something without reason.
Cole beckoned to the other three, shared his plan, and assigned tasks to everyone.
"Great idea!"
After he finished, Daniel, Valerie, and Keith immediately became eager to start.
Cole then said to Bayleef, "Bayleef, use Aromatherapy at full power!"
"Bay~"
Bayleef nodded, then released a rich fragrance that quickly spread outward.
Before long, Daniel and the others heard a buzzing sound. This familiar sound!
Sure enough, a swarm of Beedrill soon appeared before them.
"Attack!"
Keith and Daniel exchanged glances before giving the command.
Keith directed Fletchinder and Dewott to attack, while Daniel attempted to command Furfrou and Tsareena — but those two were already battling independently, not needing his instructions.
Soon, they defeated the swarm of Beedrill and captured them in Poké Balls. Cole checked their information, which Valerie then recorded.
Just as they finished with the Beedrill, a group of Butterfree appeared in the four trainers' line of sight.
"Woo-hoo! Let's go! Let's do this!!!" Daniel yelled excitedly.
Indeed, Bayleef's fragrance had a deadly attraction to certain Bug-type Pokémon.
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