Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Virah eyed Nitro’s newly evolved form- she knew that the timeline fit.

She knew that it did- he evolved into a Kakuna around a month back so it's only natural that he would turn into a Beedrill now but the timing of it couldn’t have been a coincidence right?..

“Uh-” she managed to dumbly utter out in her speechless state before recovering, “Fury Attack on the Raticate now!”

Nitro buzzed forward and blitzed towards the still recovering Raticate and with his newly gained instinct on how to use his drills, Nitro started to pummel the Raticate with the move he had acquired after his evolution.

Nitro’s drills turned white and the Raticate responded by making its entire body glow in the same manner in preparation for Quick Attack but Nitro didn’t let it execute the uncalled move and started to strike its orange colored fur with powerful hits that left the poisoned Raticate in a worse state with each impact.

The two of them fought, with the Raticate blocking unwanted strikes with its hands and Nitro continuing on his onslaught of attacks that left the breathless Raticate ragged, Nitro was slowly wearing it down, and Virah was sure that he would win so she briefly looked away from their fight to observe the Rocket Grunt who was...

Slowly inching away from the scene.

Virah looked to where Jet was and saw her Zubat fighting against the Houndour still, their opponent now looked tired and is now wounded but Virah wasn’t sure if she could allow it to spew fire relentlessly and call on her Zubat to intercept the Rocket Grunt- she didn’t want to, that was the conclusion she came to when she saw Jet use his Wing Attack to diffuse another one of the Houndour’s Embers in the middle of the air.

She turned away from the fight with the Houndour and back to the Rocket Grunt and a conflicted look crossed her face before she sighed and dashed forward. Her Aura flared to life and she felt Nitro’s webbing melt under the soles of her boots, causing her sprint to go unhindered and the Rocket Grunt to start wheezing when she got near.

Virah ignored the way the man scratched at his sealed wound and ducked low to tackle him head first- she heard a gasp come from above just as she felt something soft and smooth impact against the top of her head.

Unfortunately, that was it and instead of falling down after being hit on his wounded side like she had expected, the Rocket Grunt held his ground, raised his arm, and struck Virah on the back- all while wheezing from her toxic aura and hyperventilating from the increased pain eating away at his side.

Pain bloomed in Virah’s back and she fell to the ground in a coughing heap that got worse when the grunt raised his leg and stomped on her with his boot.

“Playing the Hero huh?” The laughter that followed his words was filled with mockery, “you’re just a kid,” another stomp landed on Virah’s back and she groaned, “what made you think that you’re heavy enough to make me fall-” the grunt’s words were interrupted by a cough, “right, you’re literally toxic aren’t you?”

The Rocket Grunt coughed as he walked away and for her part, Virah realized that charging ahead and tackling the guy instead of standing back and letting her Aura do all the work may have been a bad idea but she wasn’t thinking rationally just now, and focused on her goal in stopping the criminal from running away.

Which thankfully succeeded, opening up opportunities-

The grunt chuckled, “you sure girly?” he raised an eyebrow and flared out a bit of Aura, it was pathetic compared to hers and if he thought that was threatening, then he was mistaken, “I don’t think your stupid little dirt trick is going to work on me for long,”

But Virah still eyed the grunt’s neck and that was when he moved- she felt a blow connect to her sides and the air leave her lungs in a painful wheeze, “- mostly because you won’t be able to throw anything,”

Weightlessness took over her frame as she got lifted, “you know, it’s funny to think that you’re so powerful even when you’re just a kid,” she heard the criminal say through her tunnel vision, “real potential there and the family likes poison specialists, you know? Zubats and Grimers and Ekans are our main thing,”

Virah wheezed out a reply, “u-uhuh,”

She eyed the quickly approaching Whitney, the pinkette was shooting the grunt with a glare harsh enough to make Virah shudder but the grunt didn’t even notice thanks to her Normal Type Aura which, by all means, turned the magnet-of-attention that was Whitney into a silent assassin that could barely be noticed and even Virah was having a hard time looking at her, and she was basically using her own Aura to perceive the pinkette.

“You can join us, still-”

“NOT-” Whitney suddenly yelled, yet the grunt didn’t react other than a brief pause, “- GONNA HAPPEN!”

Whitney, who Virah thought didn’t have a plan when she came here, surprisingly did the smart thing and kicked the back of the grunt’s knee, sending him, and by extension, Virah, to the ground and then before Virah could even get up, the pinkette went on top of the grunt and started hammering his face with her fists-

“What-” he couldn’t finish what he was saying thanks to Whitney hitting his mouth, “- is happening right now?!”

Virah looked away and briefly glanced at her starter, Nitro had finished his fight and was now flying over to them, “W-Whitney, back away, Nitro’s going to trap him,” the pinkette stopped her assault and jumped back, Virah quickly seized the initiative, “Nitro- String Shot!”

Seconds after she issued her command, her Beedrill shot out a thick globule of string from his mouth that swiftly enveloped the criminal, trapping him for good.

Virah sighed in relief and turned to Grene, who was wrestling the Tyrogue with a grapple, and the martial artist had told her that chokeholds weren’t about strength, they were about leverage, and from the looks of it, the Tyrogue wasn’t willing to break his limbs in favor of escaping, so it sat still.

“I- I’m fine!” Grene bit out, “but Hollie- Hollie isn’t, please check on her,”

Virah quickly turned to where she last saw the Machop fly off to and when

she saw the Pokemon’s unconscious form, she ran as quickly as she could to assist her.