I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

Virah looked up to where Jet and Galeforce- Whitney’s Pidgey, which she actually managed to give a cool sounding name, - flew above, acting as their scouts.

Her Zubat stuck beneath the canopies, content on scouting under the cover of darkness using his sonar while Whitney’s Pidgey took to the skies and using her keen eyes, she scrutinized the forest in search for any possible Fighting and Normal Types that’ll fit Grene and Whitney’s team composition.

Virah spotted Jet fly by for a second before disappearing behind the thick leaves of the canopy once more.

Jet was great, and she was glad that she found the Zubat before any other student did- not that they could have captured Jet obviously, given where they found him, - because he wasn’t just physically healthy and with good genetics, he also had a few decent moves that while aren’t egg moves, were pretty good for a future combatant.

The first move that the Pokemon showed Virah when she asked was Wing Attack, which all by itself wasn’t good but Jet also had Quick Attack, and those are coupled with the standard set of the Zubat line with Supersonic, Leech Life, and Astonish.

5 moves. Her Pokemon had 5 moves before he was even captured and Virah was planning on turning that into six after she teaches him Roost.

Virah looked away from their scouts and back to her friends, “so, what are we looking for again?”

“I want a Poliwag or Tyrogue,” Grene answered.

“And I want a Teddiursa!” Whitney said and when she saw Virah wince, she backtracked, “or… a Munchlax, that one works too hehe~”

“I think we’re better off searching for a Munchlax honestly,” Grene said to the nod of Virah, “a Teddiursa sounds like a hassle,”

“And a massive pain,” Virah added, “but maybe we can convince an Ursaring somewhere to give us one of her cubs?”

Grene looked at Virah like she had gone insane while Whitney shot the poison specialist a hopeful look.

The pinkette smiled, “can we do that?”

Virah looked away, “... probably,” she answered before quickly adding, “b-but don’t get your hopes up alright?!” Whitney nodded at her words, “because I’m honestly not even sure if we can get something like that without… you know, getting an Ursaring mad or something else entirely,”

“What else can we attract?” Grene questioned, clearly focusing on the last part of Virah’s sentence.

“A bunch of our schoolmates,” Virah answered and when her friends winced, the poison specialist empathetically went along with them.

She knew full well just how many of her fellow girls would die for a Teddiursa so it’s only natural that if Whitney finds one, chances are, by the time their exams ended, or Ho oh forbid, they encounter another girl during the exam, then their schoolmates would swarm them and start asking where they found such a “cute Pokemon” without caring about things like personal boundaries.

They continued walking for a while, with Whitney starting small talk whenever she could and Virah and Grene going along with it.

At some point, they passed by a Poison Type that Virah considered for her team but after checking out the physical and physiological features of the Ekans, she decided to let it go in favor of finding a better example of its species in the future.

More walking followed that encounter and they continued talking about various kinds of Pokemon available to them- with Normal Types being the most common, no surprise there, and Jet even found an Ambipom at some point, with the Pokemon just staring them down as they passed, -and their conversations only ever really stopped after they encountered a group of Poliwags sitting in a pond.

They were eating berries that, to Virah, suddenly came out of nowhere until she looked up and saw that there were a few of them up in the trees. She considered that for a split second before stopping Grene from walking forward and the martial artist heeded her advice but clearly didn’t like it.

Grene stared at her in confusion, “what is it?”

“This place has berries just falling from the trees,” Virah pointed out.

“And?” Grene tilted her head, “a lot of places in Ilex Forest have berries falling from trees,”

“And this pond is also big,” Virah elaborated further and when Grene just continued shooting her an unimpressed and confused look, the poison specialist sighed and added, “there aren’t any Crabbies or Oddishes around here either,”

“And?” It was Whitney who asked this time around, she looked just as confused as Grene.

“The pond has a Poliwhirl protecting it, it’s most likely territorial” Virah cut to the chase.

“Oh, that’s great then isn’t it?” Grene said with a tilt of her head, “because it means that the Poliwags here are actually healthy and stuff, isn’t that what you told me I should search for in a Pokemon?”

“I mean… yeah but do you really want to risk angering a Poliwhirl?” Virah faced the martial artist with a frown, “because I personally feel that it’s a bad idea,”

“Poliwhirls are docile, I know because my brother has one,” Grene waved Virah off and stepped forward.

Virah reluctantly tailed after her, “have you ever considered that the Poliwhirl your brother has is only docile because it’s a Pokemon raised by someone?” The greenhead rebuked in concern, when Grene eyed her, she continued, “... and not a wild Pokemon who will obviously be territorial since this pond is a perfect habitat with food?”

“Trust me, we’ll be fine,” Grene waved off her concerns and Virah decided to go along with her.

True to Grene’s words, no Poliwhirl popped out to start berating them and none of the Poliwags turned aggressive when they neared and the martial artist started going around and asking them if they wanted to join her team.

Grene promised them strength and evolution and all the things that a trainer usually provides for a Pokemon but none of them agreed and after a while, all of the Poliwags she neared shook their heads in denial before she could even ask.

Virah watched on in discomfort, she turned to Whitney, “hey, isn’t it strange that they’re denying Grene? There’s a lot of them here and one at least wants to go along right?” Virah counted the Poliwags and found around three dozen of them just chilling around, “why are they so calm and lazy?”

“Probably because they have a Politoed,” Whitney answered with a shrug.

“They do?!” Virah looked around and ignored the way her sudden exclamation caused some of the Poliwags to dive down into the lake.

Her eyes scanned everything around her and eventually, they stopped on a green-colored bipedal frog that was slightly taller than her with a swirling pattern on its stomach and a singular strand of hair on its head.

The Politoed eyed her the same way it would eye the Poliwags around them, with care and warmth. It nodded at her and spoke its name in a slow, deep voice, “Politoed,”

The bipedal frog then closed its eyes and pretended to sleep.

“What.” Virah said in dumb realization, “what’s something like this doing here?!”

“It probably migrated,” Grene said as she came back empty handed, “I hear that Politoeds and Slowkings don't bother to protect their territories and move on when things get hardy since Slowpokes won’t care about who’s in charge and Poliwags just do whatever they want anyways,”

Virah nodded slowly while turning away from the Politoed, “... so, you got nothing?”

“Nope,” Grene said with a sigh, “the Poliwags just don’t want to go out of Ilex Forest and fight when they can just laze around here, maybe I need to search for one of them outside of here? Those guys are probably more competitive right?” 

“Probably,” Whitney shrugged, she turned to Virah, “are they more competitive?”

“They should be, yeah,” Virah nodded, “I fought one with Nitro back when he was a Weedle, and that Poliwag was pretty good at fighting,”

“I think the lack of resources and more common predators would force that kind of thing to happen,” Grene supplied her own two cents, “then I guess that’s it then? I search for a Poliwag after the exams?”

“You can still keep trying while the exams are ongoing,” Virah suggested, “it’s not like we have to leave immediately and who knows? Maybe we’ll find a Poliwag who actually wants to leave this place after we search a few more ponds,”

“Maybe…” Grene hummed in consideration, then she nodded, “yeah, I’ll keep searching for a Poliwag while we’re here and if I still don’t have one after the exams, then I’ll go around the outskirts of Ilex Forest to capture one,”

‘That’s the spirit” Whitney grinned, “now, how about we continue our search huh? I’m sure that there’s a Munchlax somewhere around here,”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Virah nodded and they left the Politoed and its group to continue looking for prospective team members.

After walking for a bit more- and subsequently finding ponds full of Poliwags that expectedly denied Grene’s attempts at getting them to join her team, - they heard a cry, it was far away and barely audible but all three of them could still hear the stress within the voice.

And without even bothering to ask each other if it was a good idea to follow after it or not, they moved as one and searched for the source.