When Jason switched from Glimmet to a Tandemaus identical to them, the whole mouse colony erupted.
"Whoa—he… he turned into one of us!"
"Looks just like me—I can't even tell us apart!"
"Wow, so that's the power of Ditto? That's amazing!"
After the brief awe came a rush of belonging. As a Glimmet he'd still felt a bit out of place; as a Tandemaus, everything clicked—much easier on the eyes.
And his shout—"All mice, with me!"—was the fuse to a powder keg, igniting anger that had been bottled up under the Talonflame family's oppression for days.
"Charge!"
"For our home!"
"Take down that stinking bird!"
Under Jason's command, every Tandemaus and Maushold stopped hesitating. Little black-bead eyes flared with resolve as they followed him, launching a do-or-die assault on the male Talonflame still jeering from the ground.
They opened their tiny mouths, flashing incisors that could bite through steel—
Population Bomb!
For the Maushold line, Tidy Up is their famed setup—"the mice's dance," clearing hazards and juicing themselves. Population Bomb is their other calling card: the purest expression of "power in numbers," hammering a single target with a rapid string of bites—up to ten times if luck smiles.
One Tandemaus nibbling might be a scratch. A swarm biting at once?
The male Talonflame learned firsthand what "strength in numbers" means.
As the white tide surged toward him, a flicker of shock crossed his eyes. He beat his wings, whipping up gale-force winds to blow the "trash" away. The first few mice were tossed about, but the ranks behind immediately filled the gaps, advancing without fear.
In moments, the first pair broke through the wind wall and sank their teeth into his iron-hard talons.
"Skraaa!"
Pain ripped a scream from him.
And that was only the start.
One, two, ten, twenty… more and more little white mice clung to him like burrs—some biting his wings, some gnawing his back, a few even going for his eyes.
Jason spotted several smaller Tandemaus frozen on the sidelines—they hadn't fully matured and hadn't learned Population Bomb. Not knowing what to do, they watched anxiously as their kin bled and fought.
"Can't use Population Bomb? Then go with Super Fang—bite!" he yelled.
At once, those lost pairs found their backbone, battle-light reigniting in their eyes as they shrieked and dove into the fray.
Super Fang may not chain like Population Bomb, but it's brutish in another way—hit or not, in the games it chops the foe's current HP in half. Even here in the world of Pokémon, it still hits hard.
Chaos peaked.
The male Talonflame had no trace of sky-sovereign majesty left. His body crawled with mice like a giant swarmed by ants. He flailed, spinning madly to fling them off; whenever one shook loose, another fearless mouse scrambled up to take its place, carving a fresh wound with sharp teeth.
Overwhelmed, the powerful Talonflame was forced to the ground, stuck on the defensive and unable to get a proper move off. Desperation set in—he just wanted to shake these maniacs and run. Revenge could wait; survival first.
As the wounds multiplied and stamina bled away, he suddenly remembered—his child was still in the air.
He threw his head back and, with the last of his strength, cried out to the Fletchling hovering at a fearful distance:
"Child! Use Tailwind!"
The chick wasn't much of a fighter—that's why it'd stayed circling instead of diving in. But a support move like Tailwind? That, it knew.
The plan was simple: have the chick whip up a Tailwind to blow the mice off him, then take off, gain distance, and escape.
Perfect… in theory.
Hearing its father's plea, the Fletchling nodded, spread its wings—
Whoosh!
A powerful wind whipped up… around itself, not the ground.
The male Talonflame froze, a bad feeling rising.
Sure enough, the unfilial chick used Tailwind to supercharge itself, turned into an arrow, and bolted for the distant forest without a backward glance.
Before it vanished over the treeline, a voice drifted back:
"Dad, rest easy! I'll avenge you someday!"
"…"
Staring after the rapidly receding speck—running faster than anyone—the fury and despair in the male Talonflame's eyes finally guttered out. His mind went blank.
"That… that good-for-nothing… just ditched Dad and ran?"
Jason noticed the chick's retreat and couldn't help a laugh.
What a dutiful child. So "filial" it kills me.
…
With the chick's desertion, the male Talonflame gave up. His massive body crashed down. No more wingbeats, no more cries—he simply let the white mice tear at him, eyes empty.
Jason stepped in and finished it.
As the Talonflame's life flickered out, a flurry of system prompts chimed in his ears.
[Defeated Talonflame…]
[Fletchling Dex completion +35%]
[Fletchling Dex current completion: 70%]
…
[Helped the Tandemaus/Maushold colony reclaim their home from the Talonflame family…]
[Maushold Dex completion +50%]
[Maushold Dex current completion: 62%]