I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

The smell of salt permeated the air, foams appeared on the sand as the waves crashed against the earth, darkness loomed over everything, the illuminated streets were far from here, beyond the beach and into the port.

The location where all three of them agreed to meet up after the raid was near Goldenrod's ocean, warehouses, docked ships, and cargo dotted the streets like furniture.

Virah looked up at the skies, the night was still young and the stars had just come out, they were clear for her to see, their twinkling forms reminded her of her dream, they weren't the leylines she saw on the void back then, but she felt the dots represented something familiar.

Maybe…

She looked away when the sound of something falling caught her attention, she ran and leaped to another warehouse to get a better look at the cause and saw Whitney hissing at her feet.

Virah looked at her Zubat, "tell her that we're close, and that she can take off her mask and costume and just walk there, do the same for Grene,"

"Zubat!" Jet flew off and Virah turned away.

She found a spot to shirk off her ninja gear and replace it with her typical civilian wear, her shirt, then hoodie came on followed by her boots.

She walked out of the darkness as a completely different person, no longer was she the ninja that had attacked a gang's base of operations half an hour prior, she was now just a regular trainer.

Virah put her hands on her pockets and walked along the illuminated path, she moved until she was out of the docks and into a more tourist friendly part of the area, walking for a bit more got her to stand still in front of a wooden cabin.

A bright neon sign that spelled "Crabby and Horsea Resto," in a colorful caption, the door up front was closer to a fence gate, she pushed them open and walked into the shack.

Waitresses carrying beer, sea food, and other things were the first thing that she saw, followed by an empty seat that she swiftly took.

While waiting for her friends, she asked for a simple side dish of fries and silently ate them, it didn't take long for both Whitney and Grene to come and from there, they ordered, ate, and once they had their filling dinner, left.

Jet came down from the skies once they were far enough from the shack and Virah recalled him.

They walked until darkness consumed them again and soon, they found themselves sitting on a weathered stone bench while watching waves crash against rocks.

"… what did you get?" Grene broke the ice.

"A water stone, a few Pokeballs, and over 10,000 Pokedollars," Virah answered.

"That much?" Grene asked.

"No, I- I'm pretty sure it should be more than this," ten thousand was small for a criminal den after all, "I just don't know where they put it,"

"Are we going to split it?" Grene asked.

"Yes," Virah nodded, "we all take 3,000 and the rest goes to funding our Pokemon, maybe a brush? Berries? Who knows,"

"That sounds like a good idea," Whitney sighed, "but isn't that dirty money?"

Virah went silent, and so did Grene, "… we should get used to these," she said, "we're not exactly getting anything else,"

"I'm…" the pinkette sighed, "I agree but I still feel bad," she said, "maybe we should donate it?"

"No," Virah shook her head.

"I agree with Virah," Grene chimed, "I think it's better if we use that money to fund our future raids?.. I think I'll stick to calling them that,"

"Raid sounds like a good idea," Virah nodded, "so, what now?"

Do they just… go back home? She wondered what they should do now that they had succeeded in actually raiding Guiomar's base, she didn't plan anything beyond their current success and now that they're back into their regular lives she felt lost…

Genuinely speaking, the shock and thrill of the raid made her dull, monotous real life feel like the most boring thing in the world in comparison.

"I think… we should just sit down," it took Virah a moment to realize that it was her who answered her question, "yeah," she agreed with her impulsive reply, "that's a good idea,"

Whitney giggled, "well, I-" she giggled again, it died down into soft fits, she wiped the sides of her eye, "it does sound like a good idea,"

"It does, doesn't?" Grene hummed, "let's sit down then,"

"Say," Virah said after a long pause, "have you guys ever felt that the waves crashing against the rocks should break them?"

All three girls focused on the rocks in front of them and observed the waves crashing against them in silence.

"Why do they look like Onixes?" Whitney pointed out to the nod of her friends, "is it just me?"

"No, not at all," Virah shook her head, "it's not just you,"

Though, then again, rocks piling on top of each other would look like Onixes no matter how many times a trainer changes their perspective, that particular feature just goes hand in hand with that specific Pokemon.

Silence finally came and the three of them sat down, doing nothing more than staring at anything that caught their eye, eventually however, Whitney's boredom came and the pinkette stood up.

"I wanna spend my money on something," she said.

"Like what?" Grene asked, "I know we told our parents that we'd hang out with each other tonight but I didn't think we'd actually do it,"

"Well, the operation did finish quicker than we expected it to," Virah pointed out to Whitney's defense, she sided with the pinkette mostly because she wanted to go out tonight herself.

"Yeah…" Grene looked away, "so, what do you guys want to do?"

"Go to the city, try out some stuff, maybe… shop? Are stores still open at this time?" Whitney asked.

"Some," Virah shrugged, "the Department Store is obviously open, I doubt it even closes,"

Whitney smiled, "well, how about we go there then?"

Virah stood up, "sounds like a good idea," she faced Grene, "wanna go there?"

"It's not like I have a choice," the martial artist replied with a sigh, she stood up, "let's go,"

To Virah, the walk back to Goldenrod felt tense, she expected something to happen, for words related to their raid an hour back to reach their ears, for… something to happen, after all, what they did was kind of a big deal wasn't it?

As it turns out, it wasn't and all the talks were the normal things Johtonian's talked about; Pokemon, professional play, and everything in between.

The bright billboards on the walls above the streets didn't show news of a gang base being taken down, or attacked, instead, they showed what's normally shown; trainers, training, and everything Pokemon related.

'Guess we're a small fish in a big pond,' Virah thought glumly.

She felt sad about the fact that she didn't get recognition for the attack but a part of her wanted to convince herself that it was a good thing, that remaining anonymous was better.

And that part was right, but her heart wanted people to acknowledge what she did, even though they clearly didn't.

She sighed in disappointment, "nothing,"

"Mhmm." Whitney said, her tone lower than normal.

"I… I think that it's a good thing," Grene sounded like she was rationalizing things.

"One day, they'll know," Virah said with conviction, "I'm going to keep going,"

"Pfftt, like that's a question," Whitney wrapped her arm around Virah's neck, "but that's for the future, for now let's go around and enjoy ourselves!"

Virah had no clue that going around Goldenrod with her friends was fun, she expected that she would enjoy something like that but for her to laugh at the littlest things that Whitney or Grene did or at the smallest, corniest jokes was… odd.

She wasn't normally like this- those were her thoughts as she paid for the carnival ride.

And yet, as she grabbed her tickets and ran towards her grinning friends, all the while wearing a grin of her own, Virah thought that she didn't mind it.