Virah heaved as she stopped running, ahead of her, Grene could be seen panting with her body bent sideways and her hands on her knees.

Jogging every morning was one thing but running 10 laps around National Park might as well be a marathon, and not even Aura could stop them from feeling exhausted after finishing the entire thing.

Virah sat down on a bench and started breathing, sweat poured out from every inch of her skin and her tank top, which was already soaked, started to feel heavy from the accumulating liquid.

A small puddle formed beneath her from all the sweat dripping down her forehead, her aching arms had small droplets of sweat all over them, tiny bubbles of liquid that ran down her skin with the slightest hint of movement.

When Whitney caught up to them, the pinkette immediately collapsed on the bench, her heavy breathing was the only thing that Virah heard for the next few minutes, and when she finally calmed down, she laughed.

"I. Am. Not- doing that again!" Whitney yelled to the skies, head tilted upward to further emphasize her declaration.

"We should, it's necessary," the person who Whitney should be directing her words to, Grene, shook her head, the martial artist exhaled loudly as she straightened herself, "we're going to stay in the wilds, which means that we'll have to outrun a Pokemon at some point,"

"Do-" Whitney's words were cut off as she heaved, once she recovered, she went back to pointing her finger at Grene, "Do- don't you dare jinx it!" The pinkette replied breathlessly, "I- I don't want to run away from Pokemon!"

"We have to," Grene replied, she shrugged, "it's something that's expected from us if we want to go deeper into the routes,"

Virah silently agreed to Grene's words while listening to the exchange, the martial artist had a point, they did need to run away from Pokemon at some point, because unless they were strong enough to be considered Elites by the league, they'd have trouble when encountering something vastly more powerful than them.

Herds would need them to run away as well, but those weren't as big of a problem as, for example, a Tyranitar or, by Lugia please steer them clear from danger, a Dragonite.

Tyranitar were slow, bulky, and powerful, they also cause sandstorms from their mere presence, but other than that? Nothing.

Sure a Hyperbeam may potentially catch up to them but Virah would rather gamble with that rather than get chased by a Dragonite, one of the fastest Pokemon species in both Kanto and Johto combined.

'There's the fact that they also have Extreme Speed as well,' Virah grimly considered, Hyperbeam was better than Extreme Speed, and the poison specialist would take the latter any day of the week.

'Unless we're in caves…' Virah looked up and eyed the colossal form of Mt. Silver.

The mountain could be seen anywhere in both Johto and Kanto, and it is populated by Pokemon considered to be the biggest, strongest, and most dangerous of both regions combined.

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Tyranitar lived in such a place, often choosing to stay in the depths of caves where they could rest peacefully and ecountering one in their natural environment could spill doom for any trainer, Elite or not.

Whitney's sigh broke Virah out of her stupor, the poison specialist looked at her friend, who let out another sigh, "I… can't wait to start our journey,"

"Me too," Grene nodded, determination painting her expression.

"I feel the same way," Virah replied.

After their exercise came the training for their Pokemon and this went on for the rest of the day where they eventually had to part ways, Whitney went back to her parents and so did Grene.

Virah on the other hand went to the slums, she found herself a secluded, empty building and upon entering, a room where she could fit all her stuff in.

She filled the tables and chairs she gathered with unfinished projects; tiny spheres with a small piece of a Water Stone within, metal rods with Thunder Stones for batteries, smoke bombs made of metal, a few nets capable of pumping out electricity, and an extendable electric baton.

All of these were tools she was preparing the night before, most of them were ready to be used while the ones that still required a bit more touches were getting finished before the night fully descends.

When Virah got out of the building, she was fully armed.

Her pouch didn't just have shurikens inside of it, but electrical rods as well, electric nets hung around her waist, their compact forms looked like Pokeballs, smoke grenades had much the same effect, an electric baton as well as a dagger finished her menacing look.

Virah made her way over to the main building of the rocket branch, she had scouted the area the previous night and even without the aid of Jet, she was able to map out and write down all the areas she needed to use for the upcoming raid.

Given that her team needed to rest and both her friends didn't need to be exposed to this part of the world, Virah would be alone in doing this, and she thought that was fine.

'I can do this,' the poison specialist told herself as she embedded her teslas into the walls of an alleyway.

Their cylindrical shape proved to be efficient in being buried within concrete and Virah found out that they didn't fall down no matter how many times she struck them.

She put down the rods on the sides of the wall as well as the ground, forming a U shape that ran across the pathway.

And lastly, Virah placed six switches on either side of the mechanism, three each for the front and back, all varying in distance from each other.

Once this one was done, Virah set up a few more on different alleyways, ensuring should she ever get chased, she would have places to run to and options for escape.

Virah's pouch was empty of the electrical rods by the time she was done and at this point, the time was about to strike at midnight, perfect for when a lonesome raider were to attack an unprepared, if not vigilant criminal safehouse.

Under the darkness of the night, Virah ran circles around the building, the patrols below were unable to hear the clinking of vials thanks to her Aura dampening the sound.

The Thunder Dust's glow became brighter as Virah stopped running, a sign that the electrical current of the fine particulates were gathering once more.

Virah grabbed four smoke bombs from her belt, she raised her hands into an X shape, then, with a deep breath, she activated her Aura and suffused the devices with her poison.

The Water Stone within the items started to shake, and Virah felt them softly thrum in power as the pressure started to build.

When the magnetic locks of the devices grew tense, the poison specialist flung her elbows and threw the items across street in front of the building.

The shell of the smoke grenades bloomed like a budding flower, their interconnected shape loosening, a hissing sound was the only sign that they were thrown, a side effect of the pressure building from within trying to escape.

When the devices landed on the pavement, a protruding shell got pressed inward, popping the internal lock and letting the now gaseous Water Stone spread outward.

Fine mist started coating the streets, blanketing the asphalt and coating the air, the sounds of choking and coughing emerged from inside the smoke, the patrolling grunts getting a taste of the toxicity present within the gas.

Virah had all the motivation she needed to jump down with her Aura flared up to its highest possible output, from her lonesome raid to the possibility of Pokemon interfering with her attack.

Poisoning the mist even further was in her best interest here, and so she did.

Virah didn't think twice as she maximized the output of her Aura, the air around her started to thicken with poisonous gas as they went out her mouth and escaped through the filters of her mask.

Her eyes, now glowing a toxic purple, lit up the interior of the veil covering the upper half of her face.

The toxins billowing out of the filters, the caustic, physical smoke started to mix with the fabric and foam present within the underside of the haunter's grin present on the mouth of the mask.

Embers fueled by toxic aura crawled across the flammable materials, burning them from the inside out and causing them to glow.

Virah's arms, neck, and hands had the same treatment, and before long, the purple glow started to grow into fissures that ran across her skin as the veins hidden underneath became bioluminescent.

The first to notice Virah was a grunt choking from the smoke, he saw her as nothing more than a hallucination that quickly became real as she jumped down and kicked him on the chin.