"What's the time?" Whitney turned to Virah.

Virah checked her Pokewatch, the newly bought the device felt gunuinely alien to her wrist, the rubber tied around her skin felt uncomfortable and the weight was very noticeable, it was like she was constantly holding a PokeBall.

'I guess it's good for exercising my wrist?' Virah thought to herself as she scratched the bottom of the watch's belt, the skin underneath was irritated for some reason.

"Don't do that," Grene looked at her pointedly, "you're only encouraging rashes,"

"I'm pretty sure I already have some," Virah stopped scratching despite her rebuke, the temptation to do it again was definitely there though.

"No you don't," Whitney looked back at her with a smile, "it takes a while getting used to but trust me, you'll forget its even there at the end of the day,"

"I guess…" Virah looked down at the Pokewatch.

"By the way, you have three Pokeballs on your belt, what's up with that? Are you planning on catching a new team member?" Whitney asked, her eyes fixated on said Pokeball.

"No," Virah shook her head, "I already caught one,"

Her friends paused, Grene spoke a moment after, "what?"

"I feel the same way," Whitney chorused, "what?"

Virah chuckled, "well… I met a Ghastly last night,"

"That's ironic," Grene said, the unspoken reason for why Virah grabbing a Ghost Type lingered in the air, unspoken yet understood.

"It is yeah," Virah sighed, "I honestly don't know," she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, she huffed, "it's like the world decided to reward me for… you know,"

Whitney winced while Grene nodded, the three of them had an unspoken agreement to never bring up that particular topic and said agreement held as their conversation died down and they started walking in silence.

Eventually, Whitney broke the ice by asking a question, "so, uh, what's their name?"

"He," Virah smiled, she grabbed Ghastly's Pokeball and lifted it to her eyeline, "and I named him Phase,"

"Hmm… that's a pretty good name," Whitney said after a bit of consideration, "it fits for a Ghost Type, honestly though, I thought you'd name him after some kind of poison gas,"

The pinkette paused, she giggled awkwardly, "haha… I didn't mean that,"

"No, no, it's fine," Virah shook it off, "I moved on from it,"

Mostly because of her friends, though Virah didn't have the courage to say that out loud.

"Thank you," but she could still tell them that she's grateful for what they did.

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"Hey, we look out for each other, no need to thank us," Whitney responded in a caring tone.

"Mhmm." Grene hummed in agreement.

Virah smiled but otherwise stayed silent. She looked around and took in the scenery, even after staying in Ilex Forest for an entire month, she still appreciated the beauty of it, from the streams of light going past the gaps in the canopies to the piles of dead leaves on the ground.

The forest's look barely shifted as they walked, staying the same no matter how much distanced they crossed.

As they went deeper, Pokemon started to populate the area, Weedles and Caterpies crawled along the branches, their coloration acting as the perfect deterrent and camouflage to any potential predator.

A Weedle tilted its head as Virah and co passed underneath the branch it was resting on, the looming threat of poison from its horn almost nonexistent.

"So, where's the brood?" Whitney's head swerved from left to right in search of the massive tree that Virah's Beedrills resided in.

"We're still on the path so we won't see it yet," Virah explained, "they're staying deep in the forest,"

"Ahhh," Whitney nodded.

"Didn't we stay around here?" Grene asked.

"No?" Virah tilted her head, what made the martial artist think that? "We were deeper into Ilex Forest, it was why we saw a Scyther and even an Ursaring,"

The two Pokemon that she mentioned were ones that commonly stayed far from places that Rangers and humans stayed in, mostly because they didn't want to risk getting attacked by rangers for causing trouble to civilians.

Which meant that mapped out areas like the path they were following didn't have any "strong" Pokemon in it, let alone ones that have evolved.

Well, save for the Metapods and Kakunas, these guys were here because of the safety provided by the path, allowing them to pass their time as an immobile cocoon without the risk of being eaten.

After a few more minutes of walking, Virah stopped and looked to her right.

"They should be around here," she said, remembering the path that she and Nera took to meet the brood for the first time.

"Let's go then!" An excited Whitney dashed to the direction Virah was pointing at.

Virah and Grene sighed before jogging after the pinkette.

Whitney eventually stopped running and when her friends caught up to her, they saw that she was staring down a Beedrill.

The Bug Type was simply hovering in front of her, its demeanour non-hostile, which told Virah it recognized her, an unsurprising outcome given that her brood saw her together with them during the rangers exam.

"Virah, is this one of them?" Whitney turned to her, and the Beedrill followed her gaze.

Virah sighed when the Bug Type nodded at her, "yes Whitney, and please don't just run to a Beedrill nest next time," she said before waving to the Beedrill, "hello again,"

"Beedrill!" The high pitched response of the Pokemon carried all the excitement it felt from seeing Virah again, "Be-Beedrill!"

It flew forward and rubbed its head on Virah's shoulders, she returned the affectionate gesture by rubbing the Pokemon's forehead.

"I miss you guys too," Virah replied, "so, how's the brood doing?"

"Be-Beedrill," the Pokemon waved its drills around as it spoke, "Beedrill,"

"Uhuh…" Virah trailed off, she turned to her friends, "we should follow after him,"

The Beedrill started moving and they followed after the hovering Bug Type, it talked a lot during their walk, explaining how everyone was doing as well as the hardships they've gone through in the wild.

"Be- Bee- Be- Beedrill," the Pokemon said, "Beedrill,"

"Yeah, I get that," Virah sighed, losing a few members of the brood was only natural, especially if they have to fend off against Pokemon stronger than them individually, "I'm glad that it's only a few casualties though,"

"Beedrill!" The Pokemon agreed with an energetic nod, "Beedrill,"

"Oh?" Virah's eyebrow shot up at that last sentence, "no one actually wants to go near the nest?"

Obviously no sane Pokemon would go near a Beedrill nest given their numbers but from time to time, a gutsy Poison Type capable of resisting a Beedrill's attacks would do it.

In the case of her brood however, it seemed that they had a protector in the form of their patriarch, also known as Nitro's father, or in Nera's words, "a Beedrill with gigantism,".

The brood had a protector, and it seemed that the moves she tutored to the Beedrill for practice in the past had become useful.

The now renamed "Drill Run" at the time was a relatively new move, and Virah wasn't even sure how it worked let alone if she could tutor it to one of her Beedrills but in the end, she managed to and now it was paying back in dividends.

Seeing as they resisted both of a Beedrill's typing, their fellow Poison Types were their main weakness, and they commonly didn't have the tools to take them out, however, with the Drill Run that their Patriarch learned, they were able to fight back.

'That must be why they were confident to go near a Nidoking and Queen…' Virah thought as the last pieces of the puzzle clicked in her mind.

When they got to the nest, it was packed with Beedrill, the brood flew around the area, building up soil and creating some sort of mesh using their venom as well as the strings of their Kakuna.

And speaking of those, Kakuna populated the trees and earth, some hung from the branches, a few were stuck on the trunk, and most of them were on the ground, there were at least several dozen of them in total and Virah wasn't sure how the brood could even afford to feed all of them.

That or Nera's helping them out, which encouraged them to increase their numbers tenfold.

When the brood noticed her, a lot of them stopped what they were doing and flew towards Virah, she talked to them, affectionately petted them, and told them stories of her journey with Nitro.

It didn't take long for their Patriarch to come as well and when he got to them, Virah released his son and let the two of them talk as she and her friends rested.

Soon, Nitro came back, Virah recalled him and after that, the Patriarch sat next to her.

"I heard you've been protecting the brood," Virah said, starting the conversation.

"Beedrill," the deep voice of the Patriarch was completely at odds to the high pitched cries of every single Beedrill around him.

"Good job,"