I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

Virah yawned as she walked into the perimeter of Goldenrod's docks, boats of all kinds populated the waters near the shore, anchored in place by Steelixes eating scrap metal on the ocean floor and warding off Gyrados.

On land, humans milled about, stalls that sold food were on the sides of the street and stray Pokemon ran around looking for a meal, Meowth were especially abundant around the area, though no Persian could be spotted.

'It makes sense,' Virah considered, 'most of them probably moved out of the city to live in forests,'

Pokemon were competitive in nature after all, and a fully evolved Pokemon will always look for a challenge, something that they couldn't find around the city.

Virah spotted Whitney and Grene standing in a line that led to a blue colored ship, they locked eyes and the former waved at her, the pinkette seemingly excited to get on with the day.

Virah made her way over to them, "the line is kind of long…" she couldn't help but notice as she eyed the crowd in front, "how long have you guys been here?"

"We've just arrived actually," Grene answered, "it's why the line behind us isn't that long,"

"Ah," Virah nodded and looked away from her friends to observe the ocean.

Beyond the ship they were meant to ride to Cianwood were trainers either riding their Pokemon or personally swimming.

They were also battling each other, and among all the Flying, Grass, and Water Types duking it out on the surface of the ocean the Pokemon that grabbed Virah's attention the most was an especially bulky Tentacruel.

It wasn't fighting anyone but was instead letting its trainer ride on its back but Virah could tell that from the size of its head alone, the Tentacruel was well taken care of.

'It's definitely tough to take down,' Virah thought as she inspected the Pokemon's overall bulk.

From this distance, she couldn't really tell how tough the Tentacruel is and she would need to actually test the stretchiness of its skin to get an actual estimate of its defenses but the size implies that it has a lot of vitality.

'Even with low defense, a large health pool is still a big deal…' Virah continued her observation, 'did it come from a breeding center?'

Virah jogged her memory for all the times she saw a Tentacool-focused incubation room back at the center and sadly couldn't remember any, still, maybe some breeding center out there sold Tentacool eggs.

'Not that they're popular enough to be sold en masse, it's definitely a personalized request if it came from a breeding center,' Virah concluded.

She looked away from the gigantic Poison Type and back to the line, "huh, it moves pretty fast," Virah pointed out, "guess we don't have to wait long,"

"Yep!" Whitney agreed, "going before the trainer rush later today was a good idea,"

"Waking up early is always a good idea," Virah said, "unless you sleep late," which she unfortunately did, "but that's-" she yawned, "it's doable since the ship has beds,"

"You're sleeping immediately after we get on aren't you?" Whitney said with a teasing tone.

"Yep," Virah nodded, "I'm tired,"

Before long, they stepped foot into the massive maw of the ship, the hull under Virah's feet creaked with each step and she worried that it wouldn't hold with how many people there are on top of this thing.

She constantly looked behind her to see if the hull was still connected to the ground on the other side or if the ship has moved an inch.

Plunging to her death sounded bad and Virah's heart skipped a beat when the ship shook for a split second.

"Sorry-" she stopped hugging Whitney and apologized, "it's my first time getting on a ship so I'm kind of scared,"

"It's fine," Whitney offered her a smile, "everyone is like this,"

"Mhmm…" Grene hummed, "I remember hugging my father's legs when I was a kid, it was my first time back then too,"

"So it's not just me huh?" Virah sighed, "it's scary, really, I think that this thing is going to collapse on us and send us down to the ocean,"

"Ahaha…" Whitney looked away, "yeah…"

Finally, after what felt like a very long walk, the three of them got on board and Virah noticed that her words had affected Whitney more than intended because the pinkette hopped onto the ship the moment that she was able to.

"That was dangerous," Grene scolded, "what if you slip?"

"You guys were behind me," Whitney retorted, "I was safe,"

"Good point," Virah conceded.

She looked around, seeing the massive interior of the ship's mouth was definitely eye opening, she expected it to be smaller so seeing a few hundred people being able to fit inside was a shock to her.

Another line formed and this time, it was to check the belongings of each passenger, the following wait took a while and Virah's drowsiness caused her to yawn over and over again throughout the entire thing.

Virah was glad to see the cream colored walls of the ship once she finally got in, she didn't have time to look around as she checked her ticket to look at her room's number.

"156," Virah said out loud, she turned to her friends, "come on, we need to go,"

Her hastened footsteps didn't wait for Whitney and Grene to catch up but the two did, they had to climb a single flight of stairs to get to their rooms but once there, Virah waved her friends goodbye and entered her cabin.

She tossed her trainer bag on the desk next to her bed followed by putting Nitro and Jet's Pokeball on the cushioned drawer, lastly, she tossed herself into the bed and the moment her cheek felt the softness of the mattress she quickly fell asleep.

Once she woke up, she reached for her trainer's bag and grabbed a bottle of water from inside, she sighed.

"Ugh." The sting of waking up sucked and required her to drink for a second time, "okay-" she sighed and popped the cap back on, "we're good,"

She twisted her body until she was staring directly at the ceiling and she did nothing for the next few minutes other than that.

'I can't believe that the guard didn't notice the vial,' she didn't know what the scanner got from her bag but since it didn't pick it up as dangerous, she assumed that it must have treated the vial as another Thunder Stone.

Otherwise she had no other explanation as for why she's on the ship.