Shadows of the Jungle

**Shadows of the Jungle**is a Halloween sidestory written for the expanded universe of *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines*. It is also the fourth sidestory written by Ander Arias and sixtieth sidestory overall.

Through a series of journal entries, it tells the story of a fateful expedition to Guyana, where a group of scientists had traveled in the hopes of finding a new undiscovered Legendary Pokémon. Little did they know, as they venture further into the jungle, the evil forces lurking from the dark will ensure that none of them makes it out alive.

## Plot

***Day 1:** An explorer team led by Gideon Knowles, Sonya Keys and Betram Hughes, arrives to Guyana, with a group of trainers provided by Giovanni, who funded an expedition that almost captured a Mew a while back, and suspects they might find it there. Knowles suspects they might discover a new Legendary Pokémon, and feels excited about the prospects.*

***Day 2:** The team arrives to a port city, and travels by bus across rather bumpy roads. Given their large budget for the expedition, Bertram suggests they hire a guide before venturing into the jungle, while Sonya wants to study the local wildlife, even though they haven't found any Pokémon that can't be found in their homeland.*

***Day 4:** After two days traveling by bus, the team arrives to a village by the edge of the jungle, where they plan to rest before beginning their expedition.*

***Day 5:** The team's trip hits a snag when the local villagers, as translated by the guide, warn them against entering the jungle, telling them that a "demon" lurks in it. Knowles assumes that the "demon" in question is the Pokémon they've come looking for, and when the villagers continue to refuse, the trainers hired by Giovanni decide to battle them to enter by force. After losing, the villagers let them enter the jungle, but continue to warn them that whatever happens to them is their responsibility and nobody will come to their aid. Bertram wants to take the threats seriously and begs Knowles to reconsider their project, but Knowles refuses, thinking that it would be the end of their careers if they did so.*

***Day 8:** The team's progress is slow, as Knowles' colleagues decide to study the local flora and fauna, much to his chagrin. Giovanni's trainers only focus on protecting them from threats as they complete the project. So far, the Pokémon they've found are rather docile and won't attack unless provoked, but they still decide to keep on alert.*

***Day 9:** As the team advances further, the jungle becomes thicker, and Sonya has noticed that the Pokémon variety decreases, with Bug-types growing increasingly more common. While Knowles finds it intriguing, he wants to focus on their task at hand, dismissing Sonya's observations.*

***Day 11:** The team has stopped seeing non-Bug-type Pokémon, and Sonya suspects that the Pokémon they've come looking for might not actually be Mew, but a Mythical or Legendary Bug-type instead, taking notice that if might be influencing the local Bug-types behavior and making them more aggressive and territorial.*

***Day 12:** The team wakes up in the morning to find that Bertram, along with all of his possessions, has vanished. Even when Giovanni's trainers were taking guard shifts, nobody noticed when he left, or if he was taken away. Knowles suspects he might have run off on his own accord, but Sonya suspects something must have taken him away, and that whatever took him might come for them later, a point Knowles is forced to concede.*

***Day 13:** The day goes without incidents, but the jungle seems too quiet for comfort, and Knowles can't help but feel a presence watches their moves from the shadows.*

***Day 15:** The team is attacked by Bug-type swarms in great numbers, but Giovanni's trainers manage to drive them away. Sonya wants to go back and find Bertram, and while Knowles seems willing to consider, Giovanni's trainers insist they have a job to do, and insist they go on. Knowles complies, but wonders if they'll be able to complete said job.*

***Day 16:** The team arrives to some ancient ruins, and decide to spend the night there. There they find ancient engravings that confirm that, at least at some point, Mew could have been there, and the guide suggests whatever Pokémon they're looking for must have taken the place as its home after Mew left.*

***Day 17:*** *The following morning, the guide has vanished, the same way as Bertram and leaving no trace behind. While Giovanni's men continue to insist on carrying on their task, they don't seem as certain as before about their survival odds, and Knowles begins to question if they'll be alive to find the Pokémon.*

***Day 18:** The trek through the jungle continues even without the guide, and the Bug-types attacks grow in strength and numbers. Sonya wants to call it quits and go look for Bertram, but Knowles refuses, wanting to carry on with the expedition and feeling it'd be pointless to look for him without any clue of where he went.*

***Day 21:** Out of supplies, the team is forced to gather berries and get water from rivers to feed themselves, but the Bug-types seem to lure them into areas where they can ambush them. In one of those attacks, one of Giovanni's trainers is fatally poisoned, and despite being given an antidote he ends up dying, even asking to be killed off to spare him of the pain. After burying him, the other two trainer take his Pokémon for themselves and Sonya insists they leave while they still can, but Knowles continues to refuse even though, deep down, he does want to get out of that place.*

***Day 22:** The Bug-types attacks continue to grow more frequent and intensity, and this time around Sonya becomes lost during one of them. Knowles suspects she might have separated to go find Bertram or just escape with her life, and deciding that she can't be blamed, Giovanni's men decided they'd rather face their boss' wrath over going back empty-handed than this green hell.*

 ***Day 23:** After going back, the attacks cease for the most part and they seem to be back on their way safely to the village. Knowles hopes they can come back with a larger team to complete their task and, hopefully, find the disappeared members.*

***Day 25:** Another day without incidents, although Knowles feels the jungle is too quiet for comfort, either because there's an ambush in wait, or the Bug-types are just letting them go out of their turf in peace.*

***Day 26:** As it turned out, the Bug-types were preparing their final assault. While Giovanni's trainers end up overwhelmed and presumably killed, Knowles barely manages to escape with his life, hiding in a nook under a fallen tree, but he knows he can't stay there forever.*

***Day 28:** Now on his own, Knowles manages to evade the Bug-types for a whole day, but he finds it hard to find food and get sleep to recover his strength, and begins to wonder why he keeps writing in his journal as the nights grow cold.*

***Final Day:** Knowles was eventually caught by the Bug-types, fainting after being stung by an Ariados and waking up sometime later in some kind of underground lair, and finally seeing the Bug-types' leader in person. Much to his surprise, it's not a Pokémon, but a human savage-looking girl who seems to be worshiped by the Bug-types like some sort of goddess, and he wonders if she might be a Bloodliner to exert that control over them. Knowing that his end is coming, Knowles writes the last lines in his journal as the Bug-types crawl down the pit he's trapped in, lamenting to not have heard the villagers' warnings before.*

Giovanni finishes reading the journal his retrieval team found in Guyana, noting that it was in a place completely different from the underground pit described in the final entry, with no trace of any of the expedition members. He calls Matori to cancel every future expedition to Guyana, before stashing the journal away in a safe he hides behind the portrait of himself and Persian behind his desk, along with several other items he feels might not see the light of the day, but are too valuable to destroy, before resuming his work in running his criminal empire.

## Continuity

* First appearances of Gideon Knowles, Sonya Keys, Bertram Huges and the (unnamed) Hive Queen.
* The Day 1 entry mentions an early capture of a Mew, who managed to escape, possibly to obtain DNA samples for the creation of Mewtwo.